Australia concluded the most successful Australian Championships ever conducted with 8,520 competitors, 500 officials and big spectator crowds.
It was the end of an era at the final day of competition at the 2006 NRMA Insurance Australian Surf Life Saving Championships, as past and present competitors, officials and spectators attended the official handover ceremony to mark the move of the Championships following 12 years at Kurrawa (1995-2006), to Scarborough Beach in Western Australia (2007).
Australia concluded the most successful Australian Championships ever conducted with 8,520 competitors, 500 officials and big spectator crowds.
It was the end of an era at the final day of competition at the 2006 NRMA Insurance Australian Surf Life Saving Championships, as past and present competitors, officials and spectators attended the official handover ceremony to mark the move of the Championships following 12 years at Kurrawa (1995-2006), to Scarborough Beach in Western Australia (2007).
Shannon Eckstein farewelled Kurrawa Beach in the nicest possible way with an emphatic Ironman win while Manly’s Naomi Flood broke a Queensland stranglehold when she raced to her first national Ironwoman title at the NRMA Insurance Australian Surf Life Saving Championships on the Gold Coast.
The iconic Australian event will shift its base to Scarborough in Western Australia next year after 12 consecutive years at Kurrawa and Eckstein made sure he left with fond memories after he defeated rising star Corey Jones (Met Caloundra) and the seasoned Zane Holmes (Kawana Waters) to win the glamour event.
While Flood became the first New South Wales competitor to win the blue ribbon event since Stacey Gartrell in 1997 when she held off a determined challenge by City of Perth’s Alicia Marriott, leaving a string of big names in their wake.
For Eckstein it was a sweet return to the winners circle after he won the coveted Ironman title in 2003 before an emergency appendectomy ruined his title defence the next season and a broken hand forced him out of competition last year. After the race a jubilant Eckstein said he came to Kurrawa believing this was in effect a title defence after the health issues of the past two seasons. Earlier in the week Eckstein had predicted that the title was a two horse race between himself and Holmes but following his victory he humbly noted that he may have been a touch lucky. “I was a bit lucky out there with that wave in the swim but in surf anything can happen, the 22-year-old said. “I had tried to use the board as a great start but that didn’t work and I went to plan B and got the wave in the swim.
It was a stunning return to form in the women’s event for the 19-year-old Flood who had to stop training for a month earlier in the year because of illness. Today she trailed Alexandra Headland’s Kristy Munroe after the opening board leg but then swam her way into the lead to break from all her rivals except Marriott. The Perth girl stuck doggedly with Flood in the ski leg and they both caught the same wave to the beach but it was the Manly star who won the sprint to the finish. “I must have been looking pretty mean in that sprint because I was giving it everything, Flood said. “I can’t describe how happy I am.
The move to Western Australia will coincide with the centenary of Surf Life Saving in Australia which will provide significant profile for the event, as the Australian Government has proclaimed 2007 as the Year of the Surf Life Saver to recognise this milestone.