Oceans Results

4 days, over 700 athletes from over 44 surf lifesaving clubs around NZ

Conditions were a mix of all 4 seasons from hot sunny days, to wet and windy with kids spending long hours on the beach, some days over 10 hours on the beach!

 

48 athletes from Canterbury headed north to Mount Maunganui last week for Oceans 2024, the biggest junior surf lifesaving festival on the national calendar, bringing together the top juniors from over 44 clubs around New Zealand. 

South Brighton Surf Lifesaving Club sent a team of 14 juniors aged between 10-14 to test themselves against the rest of NZ

They returned home as a team with 8 individual medals across the team and 3 team medals.

Most successful Oceans for the club in many years and is really encouraging future for our club as a number of these juniors head into the senior ranks next season.

Top performer from the South Island was Under 13 athlete Chloe Jorgensen, who won Gold in surf race, beach sprints, and diamond and SILVER in Run swim run, board race.  An impressive 5 individual medals, along with 2 team medals and a 4th place would have put her as one of the top performers at the event, showing it is possible to excel in beach, swim and board disciplines without needing to specialise too early.

As a the team South Brighton showed off their training and effort training under their mid week coach Monty Hodge and Beach coach Malcolm McDonald taking out the Under 14 mixed beach relay for Chloe, Flyn, Tayla and Tahere and two medals in beach flags - Silver to Tayla Cox in U14 girls, and Bronze to Flyn Ritchie in U14 boys.

Another 9 results in the top 6 shows excitement for even more results next year and beyond, especially as 5 were attending Oceans for the very first time.

Resilience and endurance were key at this event, with athletes spending up to more than 10 hours on the beach some days, due to delays, course relocations and the size of the event. 

Those that had put the time in both on the water, and in the pool in the last 12 months found this a little easier to handle.  Some events had heats, quarters, semis and finals with over 100 athletes in an age group.

"We worked together well, both as a team and collectively across the Canterbury Clubs, not to mention a great team of coaches and parents. We were often spending significant times in the elements, or trying to move 50 boards and multiple tents up and down the beach as organisers shuffled the programme and locations, so team work was really important, said Team Manager Julie Jorgensen". 

South Brighton Surf Lifesaving club offers training over the year, with pool training from April to September, pre-season flat water training in Lyttleton 2x per week, beach training weekly with coach Malcolm McDonald and mid-week training throughout the season with Coach Monty Hodge.  In addition to this, the juniors come together every Sunday for club day, and to hone their skills in both the sport side of surf lifesaving and starting the steps in learning to become lifeguards.
 

With Canterbury Champs just around the corner next weekend at South Brighton Beach, our team of juniors from Under 8's to Under 14's will be looking to retain their title of top Canterbury Club, an accolade they have held for a number of years.  Get down to the beach on Sat 9th March from 8.30am to watch

 

Results for the team in finals

Chloe - Individual medals:

Gold in surf race, beach sprints, diamond

Silver in Run swim run, board race
4th flags

Tyronne

Bronze in Run swim run
(5th in surf race)

Flyn
3rd in U14 beach flags

Tayla Cox

2nd U14 Beach flags

Team medals

U14 Mixed beach relay - GOLD - Chloe, Flyn, Tayla and Tahere

U14 Board relay - Silver - Flyn, Maio and Tahere

U14 Board rescue - Bronze - Chloe and Tayla

  

Other results from finals

Emma - 17th - U12 Surf Race

Tayla - 6th - U14 beach sprints

Tahere - 4th - U14 beach sprints

Flyn - 5th - U14 beach sprints

Flyn/Tahere - 6th - U14 board rescue

Brooklyn - 10th U11 board race

Emma - 5th- U12  Board race

Keala - 15th U14 Board race

Maio - 14th U14  Board race

Brooklyn - 23rd U11 Run Swim Run

Emma - 5th U12 run swim run

Maitland - 13th U13 run swim run

Tayla - 22nd U14 run swim run

Chloe, Tayla, Keala - 5th U14 board relay

Chloe - 4th U13 beach flags

Tyronne - 9th - U11 diamond

Lachlan - 10th U11 diamond

Emma - 4th - U12 diamond

Maitland - 13th - U13 diamond

Tayla - 16th - U14 diamond

 

Semi
Tahere - 11th - diamond

Flyn - 13th - diamond

Maio - 14th - diamond

 

 

Team of 14

Managed by Julie Jorgensen

Head Coaches were Leanne McAlister, and Bruce Lomax,
Other coaches: Nigel Cox and Matt Sheppard