KIRRA GIRLS STAND ALONE
THE odds were high but surf lifesaving minnows Kirra have achieved a rare 1,2,3,4 finish with their only competitors in a championship final.
Kirra quartet Pyper Smith, Caprice Byrne, Shania Hamilton and Martine Brekhoff-Jones were the last four girls standing in the under-14 beach flags at the Point Danger branch championships at the weekend.
“I’ve never seen it myself before,” said the girls’ coach Joel Kinneally, who has a decades-long association with the branch.
Making the feat more remarkable is that Kirra is one of the smallest clubs in the branch with 112 nippers registered this year.
In comparison, Palm Beach (318), Currumbin (277) and Tweed Heads Coolangatta (269) have many more members.
The Kirra girls have stepped up training to three to five sessions a week this year and are reaping the rewards.
“I’ve put it in their ears a few times that natural ability only takes them so far,” Kinneally said.
“They have put in a bit of work and obviously it’s paying off. They’re pretty committed. It’s good.”
Kinneally said the closeknit squad had set the goal of getting all four girls into the branch final.
“If we made the final, everything after that was bit of a bonus,” he said.
“I think when they got to the moment when they were just the four girls left, that’s the part where they were most excited.
“It looked like they didn’t really care who came first, second, third and fourth after that.”
For the record, Smith beat Byrne in the final run-off, with Hamilton winning the bronze and Brekhoff-Jones finishing fourth in the overall field of 26.
The 13-year-old girls, who have come through Kirra’s nipper ranks together, are now focusing on the Queensland championships at Alexandra Headland on March 2-4.
In other highlights of the Point Danger championships, Rainbow Bay’s Michaela Evans won the under-14 girls surf race and 2km run.
Currumbin’s Zach King won the under-14 boys swim and board races while clubmate Charles Passmore beat him in the ironman.
The South Coast branch, which covers northern Gold Coast, will hold their under-11 to under-15 titles at Mermaid Beach this weekend.