De Morny and Billson get off to golden start at lifesaving championships
LIFESAVING SOUTH AFRICA superstars Ryle de Morny and Carmel Billson lived up to the hype in taking gold in the Interprovincial on Day One of the General Tyre LifeSaving SA National Championships in Camps Bay.
The prestigious three-day National Interclub Championships starts today today but yesterday belonged to the country’s Interprovincial finest and the best of the male and female veterans in the Masters Division.
De Morny, whose 10 World Championship medals include four golds, is False Bay’s Interclub Championship leading challenger but on Day One he wore the colours of the Western Cape – and predictably proved too strong for the rest of the country’s beach sprinters.
The pre-tournament big names all produced dominant performances in the Interprovincial with the Western Cape’s Nottens, Dominic and Nicholas, triumphant in the Board Race and Nicholas Notten and the Eastern Cape’s Daniel Jones leading the way in the Surf Swim.
The Eastern Cape junior duo of Amica de Jager and Bradley Odendaal excelled in their opening events with De Jager, who won four individual golds at the 2016 National Interclub championship, again excellent in the Interprovincal Female Junior Surf Swim.
Odendaal, who will represent Kings Beach over the next three days, won the Eastern Cape Junior Male Sprint Interprovincial Title to justify his billing as the country’s best junior speedster.
Kwazulu-Natal’s Matthew Maraun and Western Cape’s Luke Durr were also Interprovincial winners and both youngsters are expected to be multiple medal contenders in the Interclub championships.
Billson made history in 2016 when she won 17 national titles and she spearheaded Kwazulu-Natal’s medal charge with victory in the Board Race.
Strandfontein’s Stanton Shaw’s 68 points highlighted the most dominant performance in the Masters (aged 50-54). Shaw was nothing short of amazing in winning five individual events and coming second in four others.
Strandfontein’s Paul Fortuin also starred with 56 points (aged 65-69) and what made his performance breathtaking was that he won all his eight events.
Big Bay’s Liesl Hillman (60 points) rocked (aged 45-49) and was the only woman to total 60 points.
Strand’s Daantjie Malan (53 points, aged 55-59), Fish Hoek’s trio of Brandon Kilbride (47 points, aged 30-34), Doug Smetherha (aged 40-45) and Robyn Smith (female aged 30-34) were outstanding, as were Strandfontein’s Robert Hamlin and Big Bay’s Nicola de Jager in totalling 46 and 45 points respectively. Milnerton’s Peter Jones (44) and Suncoast’s Theo van der Westhuizen (40 points, aged 35-39) completed the top individual scores in the Masters.
Llandudno (462.5 points) were the National Masters Interclub victors, with Fish Hoek (449) and Big Bay (386) completing the top three.
Shaw, Fortuin and Hamlin’s respective individual efforts helped Strandfontein to fourth (255) and Kwazulu-Natal’s Umhlanga Rocks (178) were fifth.