Stars align for surf lifesaving nationals

New Zealand’s top surf lifesavers will take some decent form into the NZCT national championships, which start with the masters titles in Whakatane tomorrow.

With record numbers attending the four-day carnival at Ohope Beach, a big influx of Australian-based stars will join the fray.

Several picked up decent finishes at the Queensland state titles last weekend, including reigning New Zealand ironman champion Daniel Moodie.

Moodie finished fourth in the surf race at Kurrawa Beach on the Gold Coast, behind Olympic swimmer Ky Hurst and Australian representatives Corey Jones and Dev Lahey, while he and his Northcliffe clubmates finished fifth in the teams surf race.

Midway's Mike Janes teamed with Hurst, Phil Clayton and Andrew Mewing as the Kurrawa club finished third in the same event, while Janes also picked up bronze in the 2km beach run and the open taplin.

Kevin Morrison helped Northcliffe win the tube rescue title, was fourth in the open ski final and second in the ski relay final.

Paekakariki's world champion sprinter Ben Willis also showed he's returning to top form, grabbing silvers in both the beach flags and the beach sprint. His Northcliffe beach relay team - also featuring former New Zealand 400m champion Callum Taylor - finished third, with Taranaki's Paul Cracroft-Wilson anchoring Kurrawa's victory.

Cracroft-Wilson won his third New Zealand flags title last year, again preventing South Bright's Morgan Foster collecting an incredible 10th title and with Willis, the trio are set for more fireworks in Ohope.

Moodie is also in the middle of an imposing streak, having won the previous four national ironman finals.

Still only 22, the Hawke’s Bay star will be looking to move ahead of former Olympic kayaker Ian Ferguson and Waimairi's Geoff Walker (both on four) and within sight of Cory Hutchings’ remarkable 11 ironman titles.

Having made his debut on Australia’s Kellogg’s Nutrigrain series this year, however, Moodie is starting to feel the pinch.
“The season’s been long and I haven’t had a weekend off since early January,” Moodie said. “That’s starting to hit me now – Kellogg’s is over and it’s almost like my body wants to start winding down.”

“This season has just been all over the show - it’s probably been the worst year for training because I just haven’t been able to put as much effort in.. The strange thing is that I’ve been getting better results, which is weird. That’s really made me want to put my head down this coming winter and just go for it.”

Moodie also ended Glenn Anderson's six-year unbeaten streak in the surf race last year, although the 30-year-old New Zealand captain can't be discounted in any of the big events this weekend.

Orewa's Rachel Clarke will be looking to build on her brilliant double last year when she collected the under-19 and open ironwoman races.

Her main competition will come from Australian-based Maddie Boon and Westshore's national representative Nikki Cox.

Defending club champions Midway will have the biggest contingent of athletes at the carnival, with the 80-strong lineup adding to the record number of entries.

In all, 1269 qualified open, under-19 and under-16 lifeguards will compete, up from 1204 last year and 1173 from two years ago when Ohope last hosted the event.

It's a huge jump from 2000 when 839 competitors turned up and puts a healthy spin on the state of surf lifesaving as a sport.

Nearly 300 masters will kick off the carnival tomorrow with a day of events for athletes aged between 30 and 70+.

Among the bigger clubs represented are Mount Maunganui with 70, near-neighbours Papamoa (77 athletes) and Auckland clubs Piha (78) and Red Beach (73).