It’s getting to the business end of the season and our beach team is looking the goods after an amazing first half of the season.
The Stanny Beachies again dominated the Sydney Water Premiership beach events with a number of our competitors winning their pointscore and helping our club finish second in the overall pointscore just behind the strong Cronulla team. During this series, we had a number of members selected in the Illawarra Interbranch team who represented our area at the NSW Interbranch Championships held at Forster. These members were Blake Drysdale, Laura Humphries, Tom Dewey, Alana Humphries, Daniel McKellar, Katie Mott, Tristan Sailor and Dominic Keegan.
One highlight from this carnival was the Senior Beach Relay, with the Illawarra team being completely from Helensburgh/Stanwell Park. The team won in a dominant display, beating the Sydney Northern Beaches team by nearly 30 metres.
As we look forward to the coming months and the big carnivals that await, our team is looking strong in a number of events. This was shown only a few weeks ago at the prestigious Manly Open Carnival where we had a number of competitors produce strong performances. Our newest team member, two-time Australian Open Women’s Beach Sprint Champion Laura Shorter, proved that she will be the one to beat come April after winning the beach sprint in convincing fashion from current World Champion Melissa Howard of Kurrawa. Daniel McKellar also put his name forward as the one to watch, winning his U/17 Male Sprint final in similar fashion. Other club members who starred were Tom Dewey and Blake Drysdale, both putting in one of their stronger performances of the season.
Not only did we have representatives in the Illawarra team this season, we also had a number of beachies selected in the New South Wales team. After his strong performance at the NSW Interbranch Championships, Daniel McKellar was selected as the U/17 Male Beach Representative for the team to compete at the Interstate Championships at Newport. Daniel was later joined by team mate Blake Drysdale who was called in after injury forced current World Open Beach Sprint + Flags Champion Jake Lynch to withdraw. On the eve of the carnival, another member Tom Dewey was called in as the U/19 Male Beach reserve. Our sprint queen Laura Shorter was also drafted into the Northern Territory team.
For a small club like us, to have four members competing in this event was a huge effort.
With only a month until the NSW Open Championships, our team is hard at work making sure they are fit and ready to go. Led by our elder members Laura Humphries, Blake Drysdale and Laura Shorter, our team is aiming to dominate the beach events even more than we did last year. We have a number of gold medal hopes in both individual and team events. WATCH THIS SPACE….
Below are some results from the season so far.
NSW INTERBRANCH CHAMPIONSHIPS
Blake Drysdale - 1st Open Male Flags + 2nd Open Male Sprint
Laura Humphries - 3rd Open Female Flags
Tom Dewey- 2nd U/19 Male Sprint + 3rd U/19 Male Flags
Alana Humphries - 1st U/19 Female Sprint + 2nd U/19 Female Flags
Daniel McKellar - 1st U/17 Male Sprint + 3rd U/17 Male Flags
Katie Mott - 2nd U/17 Female Sprint
Tristan Sailor - 1st U/15 Male Flags + 2nd U/15 Male Sprint
Dom Keegan - 3rd U/14 Male Sprint
PALM BEACH OPEN CARNIVAL
Alana Humphries - 1st U/19 Female Sprint, 1st U/19 Female Flags, 2nd Open Female Sprint + 2nd Open Female Flags
Blake Drysdale - 1st Open Male Flags + 2nd Open Male Sprint
Laura Shorter - 1st Open Female Sprint + 3rd Open Female Flags
Laura Humphries - 1st Open Female Flags
WANDA INTERCITIES CARNIVAL
Tom Dewey - 1st U/19 Male Sprint, 1st U/19 Male Flags, 2nd Open Male Sprint + 3rd Open Male Flags
Katie Mott - 1st U/17 Female Sprint, 1st U/17 Female Flags, 3rd Open Female Sprint + 3rd Open Female Flags
Blake Drysdale - 1st Open Male Sprint + 1st Open Male Flags
Laura Shorter - 1st Open Female Sprint
Laura Humphries - 1st Open Female Flags
Cameron Baillie - 3rd U/19 Male Sprint + 2nd U/19 Male Flags
Dom Keegan - 3rd U/15 Male Flags
Blake Drysdale, Daniel McKellar, Cameron Baillie + Tom Dewey - 2nd Open Male Relay
MANLY OPEN CARNIVAL
Laura Shorter - 1st Open Female Sprint
Daniel McKellar - 1st U/17 Male Sprint
Tom Dewey - 2nd U/19 Male Flags + 3rd U/19 Male Sprint
Blake Drysdale - 2nd Open Male Flags
Cameron Baillie - 3rd U/19 Male Flags
Cameron Baillie, Daniel McKellar, Kurt Drysdale + Tom Dewey - 1st U/19 Male Beach Relay
INTERSTATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Blake Drysdale - 2nd Open Male Sprint + 3rd Open Male Flags
Laura Shorter - 2nd Open Female Sprint + 5th Open Female Flags
Daniel McKellar - 1st U/17 Male Sprint + 4th U/17 Male Flags
Interstate Representatives – Blake Drysdale, Laura Shorter & Daniel McKellar
