Double win for Kinsela
IT’S a case of two titles in two weeks for Currumbin young gun Ky Kinsela.
The 18-year-old stormed home at Broadbeach yesterday to take out the under-19 ironman final ahead of Northcliffe’s James Rosato and clubmate Jess Little.
Remarkably, the performance came just one week after the rising star won the identical race at the NSW Surf Life Saving Championships at Blacksmiths Beach.
While yesterday’s victory further solidifies Kinsela’s reputation as a future superstar, the humble youngster is taking it all in his stride.
“I joined Currumbin a few seasons ago and haven’t had too much of an opportunity to race the boys from down in New South Wales so I thought I’d give it a go last week, have some fun, and I managed to get a good result,” he said.
“But today was probably one of the hardest races I’ve ever done, with all the running across the shallow bank and there are a lot of potholes out there, so you had to be careful as well as trying to go fast.
“It was a tough race, but a really good result out there today.”
Like most lifesavers, Kinsela will be on the hunt for more gold when he lines up at the Australian titles on the same beach in two weeks’ time, but he wasn’t getting too far ahead of himself.
“With Aussies, I suppose my goal is to make the final first and then see what happens from there,” he said.
“When it comes to surf you can’t really say ‘I’ll do this or I’ll do that’ because you can run into some really bad luck on the day or you could have some good stuff happen, so you just have to go with it.”
Kinsela hopes to continue moving up in the sport and become a regular in the elite Nutri-Grain Ironman Series, something Currumbin and Australian coach Kurt Wilson said was a definite possibility given the teen’s wealth of talent.
“He’s got all the skills and all the attributes and, from here, it sits with Ky in terms of how far he wants to take it, but he’s definitely one of the kids of the future,” he said.
“He followed the Ocean6 Series this year and made a couple of the Nutri-Grain ironman finals, so the world’s his oyster at the moment.
“If he can keep lifting higher and higher, then I’m sure he’ll get there.”
In addition to the under-19 ironman, Kinsela also took out the surf ski and teamed up with Joe Engel to win the surf board rescue.