Taranaki teens tame Monster
Taranaki teenager Joe Collins became the youngest male to win the country’s most prestigious endurance surf lifesaving event – the Mount Monster.
The 17-year-old, who represents Fitzroy, went one better than his runner-up finish at last year’s event with a dominant win at the weekend.
He was joined on the winning podium by fellow Taranaki lifeguard Claudia Kelly, 18, who collected her first title.
Collins eased home in 2hrs
29mins 32secs, more than three minutes clear of his nearest rival – 15-year-old Gisborne prodigy Lachie Falloon, who managed to pull away from 2017 champion Hamish Miller on the final board leg for an outstanding debut.
Collins has been based in Australia for much of this year, training with the Northcliffe club
14 times a week under the auspices of fellow Kiwi and former New Zealand star Kevin Morrison, and the work paid off in some style.
‘‘I was so close last year. To get it this year, I’m so stoked,’’ Collins said.
‘‘I love coming and doing the Mount Monster because it just gives you such an endurance base for the rest of the year and then I can get into the sprint stuff for the rest of the under-19 season.’’
With a record field of 363 surf athletes tackling the 24.5km, fourleg epic along the Mt Maunganui coastline, organisers stepped things up by changing the order of legs for the first time in seven years, promoting the 12km ski to start proceedings.
With two-metre set waves sneaking through, it made for a spectacular show.
Collins survived being washed off his ski at the turn and then eased away on the run and swim and was never really challenged.
It was a similar story for Kelly in a stacked women’s race.
She jostled for the lead with defending champion Ella Kingi (Otaki) and former professional star Devon Halligan for large parts of the ski leg, before joining young East End teammate Julia Padrutt in the lead on the run.
Despite a wobbly ankle, she managed to keep stretching her advantage, finishing in style by catching a bomb on the final board leg into the beach.
‘‘I’ve been injured the past few years but I’m just so stoked to take it out today,’’ Kelly said.
Kelly’s time was 2:44:37, good enough for 11th overall and four minutes faster than Kingi.
Taranaki also had success in the mixed teams event, with East End’s team coming in second. In the Mini Monster, for younger athletes, East End’s Callum Gordon finished second with Fitzroy’s Daniel Callebaut in third.