Fury shows she’s stronger than iron
CLIFTON’S Rebecca Fury fought all the way to triumph in the prestigious female Under-14 Iron race at the 2022 DHL Lifesaving National Club Championships at Kings Beach in Gqeberha on the final day of the three-day Nippers Surf competition.
The Nippers will relocate to Newton Park’s pool for the remainder of the week and the juniors and seniors will take to the sand and surf to complete the week-long lifesaving extravaganza.
Clifton’s U14s were outstanding in leading the club’s contest for first place with locals Summerstrand, whose Nippers in 2021 combined their talents in the pool and surf to be the most dominant club at the Championships.
This year it has been nip and tuck with Clifton and Summerstrand and with just a few races remaining, only a few points separated the two clubs, with Fish Hoek in third place.
Fury’s gold was one of 15 individual golds won by the Clifton nippers and it was the highlight of the female U14s, with Llandudno’s Ryley Smith edging Clifton’s Sebastian Cudmore in the U14 Iron race for males.
Strandfontein’s Eve Abrahams won the U14 female beach sprint and Fish Hoek’s Samuel Mocke, son of the legendary paddling husband/wife duo of Dawid and Nikki, finished second in the U13 male Iron race to Plett’s Liam Stephenson.
Summerstrand’s Gous family in particular found the colour of gold to their liking.
It has become standard practice for Fanta Gous to be ever present in most events in the Masters aged 45-50 years and for wife Tracy to be powerful and victorious in the female age group 40-45.
Now it is the turn of the Gous Nippers, Sienna and Morgan to shine, and in spectacular weather conditions they did just that at Kings Beach.
Sienna, in the U12s, won three gold medals and a silver after an intense rivalry with Plett’s Hannah de Necker, who was also a multiple-gold winner. What sets De Necker apart from most is that she proved as effective in the beach sprints and flags as she did in the surf, with the two disciplines demanding very different areas of strength.
Not to be outdone by Sienna, it was Morgan in the U11s, who also won three gold medals, with both the Gous’ taking gold in the body board and the surf swim in their respective age groups.
Gold medal winners among the Nippers included Clifton’s U14s Cudmore and Fury, Clifton’s Scarlett van der Merwe, Strand’s JP van der Walt, Durban Surf’s Kyan White and Strandfontein’s Eve Abrahams.
Lisa de Villers (Summerstrand) was a multiple winner in the U13s, as were Plett’s Lima Stephenson, Summerstand’s Daniel Pappas and Clifton’s Sophia Pooley. Clifton’s Josh Huntingford, Seagulls’ Kealah Plaatjies, Durban Surf’s Ethan Allen and Joshua Chown of Fish Hoek also won gold.
In the U12s, there were gold medals for Kyto Tuohy (Clifton), Zahra Mohamad (Fish Hoek), Jarryd Cole (Llandudno) and De Necker (Plett) and several for Gous (Summerstrand).
Bjorn Maree of hosts Kings Beach won gold in the U11s, and there were also golds in the under 11s for Sabrina Krige (Milnerton), Eden Whitaker (Kings Beach), Michael Kemp (Strand) and, of course, Summerstrand’s Gous.
Kings Beach’s Shah Eli Kannemeyer took gold in the U10s, as did Fish Hoek’s Olivia Latimer. Marine’s Eddie Harker also won gold, along with Bianca Salmon of Umhlanga and Sophia da Costa of Marine.
East London’s Callum Rohtbart and Summerstrand's Aran Garrett won gold in the U10s and Kings Beach’s Daniel Verdon claimed a first place in U9s, as did Clifton’s Gia Heldsinger, Llandudno’s Emma Cullis and Clifton’s Ahadi Magotsi.
In the seniors Pool event at Newton Park, there were new South African records for Harties’ Christian van Eerden and Boksberg’s Aiden Bornman.