NO TRAINING, NO EXPERIENCE ... NO WORRIES
HOW RISING TALENT SNARED AN AUSSIE TITLE
WHEN Tynan Neveceral’s parents dropped him off at North Burleigh for day two of the youth Aussies yesterday morning, the Currumbin teen told them to head home and enjoy their day.
“I told them not to waste their time and just stay home and chill, I’m not going to make it through the first round of competition,” he said.
His parents will be glad they ignored his instructions because they got to witness their son being crowned the under-15 Australian flags champion.
“They decided to come and I won, which was lucky,” the 15-year-old said.
I’VE NEVER DONE ANY SURF LIFESAVING COMPETITION BEFORE SO I THOUGHT I’D SEE WHAT HAPPENS AND SOMEHOW I WON TYNAN NEVECERAL
That’s just the start of the story. The sprinting sensation said that after dedicating years to athletics, a casual chat with his coach Brett Robinson put him on the surf lifesaving path.
“My coach said I should have a crack at it and I thought: ‘Yeah sure why not?’ ” he said. “I’ve never done any surf lifesaving competition before so I thought I’d see what happens and somehow I won.”
Making his win even more remarkable is the fact that the Currumbin product practised his first flags start only minutes before he stepped out onto the national stage.
Neveceral missed the state titles at Burleigh last month to instead attend the Queensland Athletics Championships in Brisbane, finishing fourth in under-17 long jump.
“I’ve never trained (for surf lifesaving),” he said. “I just rocked up today.
“I didn’t even know how to do a start in flags.
“It was so hard so I just did one start beforehand then stopped and thought I’d try my best in the competition.”
After making it through all six of the elimination rounds, Neveceral placed his chin on his hands for the final time as he prepared to do battle with Peter Thoroughgood from Elouera SLSC. “I was laying there thinking that I was happy with whatever I got because I’d made the top two,” he said.
“All of the rounds were pretty hard because the boys are all tough competition.
“It’s really tiring and I’m not used to it.” A final lunge saw Neveceral rip the flag from Thoroughgood’s grasp and add to his bronze medal in the under-15 male beach sprint.
But unfortunately for surf lifesaving fans, Neveceral looks set to continue his fledging athletics career, which saw him break 11 seconds in the 100m final at the Australian Junior Athletics Championships in Sydney last year.
“I’ll stick with track and start training for surf lifesaving but it will be my side sport,” he said.
“I wasn’t expecting much and thought I’d just come down for fun.
“It’s pretty unbelievable.”