Gold Coast clubs won all categories of the Australian IRB Championships at Mollymook, following several days of thrills and spills.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Kurrawa SLSC won the open competition, Broadbeach SLSC the Masters, and Miami Beach SLSC the U23 event.
Kurrawa SLSC [46] won three gold medals [female mass rescue, female surf rescue and male teams rescue] and five overall to win the open competition convincingly ahead of Kirra SLSC [29] and Miami SLSC [18].
Club coach and IRB captain Scott Wheeler, was proud of his club's effort and results throughout the competition and highlighted the important role his competitors play on the beaches as lifesavers.
"It has been a long time coming with COVID-19 meaning we couldn't compete for a couple of years," he said.
"However, this year so many people came forward to be involved and we had some competitors from New Zealand recently move over and join our club.
"I'm just so proud of what we have achieved, there were 35 of us here for this event."
He said one of the main goals at Kurrawa is to put lifesavers on the beach and our club really supports IRB Racing for that reason.
"All these young kids patrol every weekend, a lot of them are lifesavers and we have three board members on our team, so it is a great club effort and awesome to see that this sport helps keep young kids in the sport and lifesaving."
Broadbeach SLSC won five gold medals [male and female mass rescue, female tube rescue, male teams and female surf rescue) to win their first ever national title in the masters competition ahead of New South Wales Clubs Kiama Downs SLSC and Caves Beach SLSC.
"Since February we have been training during the week and every weekend and the members just keep showing up and this really is for everyone at Broadbeach, we are a small club where everyone helps out, we fundraise to do what we love doing," said National Champion and Club President Mark Fife.
"This is awesome for our club; this is our first Australian title, and it means a lot to everyone at our Club.
"Broadbeach has always been about patrols and these members that have been racing and competing this weekend are the ones on patrol every weekend making sure that the public is safe so this is a great reward for the hours and hard work they put in working on their skills and keeping people safe.".
In the U23 competition, it was Queensland again with Miami Beach SLSC [28] finishing first ahead of Kirra SLSC [22] and Dicky Beach [15].
Miami SLSC won the male teams rescue and placed in several other events to claim the title with gold medallist patient, Zach Henwood, attributing the Club's success to the great club culture.
"It's been a really great weekend and we have a great group of people here representing Miami and a lot of youth coming through which is great for our sport and club," said Henwood.
"They've trained really hard all through the season, and our club has a great culture, we are a really good family friendly club which is great for the time we spend together training and at events like this so to get this result is really great for everyone at our club."
The 2022 IRB Championships overall saw 240 events take place over four-days of racing involving 32 Clubs from across four states.
