Stellar year for Tessa
Champion athlete Tessa Bradley — seen competing in the beach flags event in Adelaide — has had a stellar year. The Katikati College Sportsperson of the Year won gold and the overall World Youth Championship title, with the NZ Junior Black Fins, beating Australia and France. She broke records and notched up numerous medals along the way.
What an amazing year for Katikati College’s Dux Ludorum (Sportsperson of the Year) Tessa Bradley. Her selection in the Junior Black Fins came earlier this year and set the stage for many months of intensive training on the beach and in the pool.
Her selection came after competing in the Surf Lifesaving Ocean Nationals in March in the U19 female category bringing home five team golds, one team silver and two individual bronze in the surf swim and board race. She next competed in the Eastern Region Surf Life Saving (SLS) pool champs in August and was the U19 overall female winner, winning seven out of seven individual events and was also won in three of the four team events.
The Northern Region SLS pool champs in early September gave her an individual first, second and three third placings and second in two team events. The final big event in her calendar before the Adelaide World Championships was the 2018 Surf Life Saving NZ Pool Rescue champs on October 12 in Auckland, where she performed on an outstanding level achieving a national title gold medal in the six-person club mega relay. Tessa also picked up three individual U19 female bronze medals in 50m manikin carry, 50m with fins, 200m super lifesaver, along with a silver and bronze in other U19 club relay events.
This took her to the World Junior and Open Lifesaving Championships held in Adelaide last weekend. Along with her teammates, Tessa helped to rack up the medals, grabbing gold in the beach relay event (Briana Irving, Sasha Reid, Tessa Bradley, Lucy Makaea), a gold in the
4x25m manikin relay (Lucy Makaea, Macy Burns, Claudia Kelly, Tessa Bradley) and five silvers in the 4x50m medley relay,
200m obstacle relay, the tube rescue, board rescue and ocean women relay event. One of the most astounding results was the world record and gold medal in the mixed pool lifesaver relay (Macy Burns, Tessa Bradley, Zac Reid, Oscar Williams) in 1:58.14. The Junior Black Fins also got gold for overall World Youth Championships beating Australia, second and France, third.
Junior Black Fins team members — Aidan Smith, Papamoa, Briana Irving, Waikanae, Claudia Kelly, East End, Declan Dempster, Mount Maunganui
Lochlainn O’Connor, Mount Maunganui, Lucy Makaea, Piha, Macy Burns, Lyall Bay, Mitch Cowdrey, Papamoa, Sasha Reid, Fitzroy, Oscar Williams, Piha, Tessa Bradley, Mount Maunganui and Zac Reid, Fitzroy.
Congratulations Tessa, we are so proud of your success and how hard you have worked for it.
KI O RAHI
Katikati College hosted the BOP Invitational Ki o Rahi tournament last Friday. The traditional Ma¯ ori game is based on the Purakau (legend) of Rahitutakahina and the rescue of his wife Tiarakurapakewai. The ta¯ karo is a reflection of Tupuna storytelling at its best, and provides an insight into the way in which they would explain and design Ta¯ karo to reflect their unique ‘world view’. The Papa Ta¯ karo (field) layout of Ki o Rahi and the way the Ta¯ karo is played is a perfect example of this. In perfect conditions, KKC was delighted to welcome three new schools to our tournament, Rotorua Boys’ and Rotorua Girls’ High schools, and Opotiki College. It was a competitive day with old rivals Te Wharekura o Mauao bringing a strong contingent. With nearly 25 games played over the day, it couldn’t have been possible without volunteer umpires/ recorders Roelien Du Plessis, Tesimoni Uilou, Lesen Huiarangi, Ethan Fraser, Sostitini Tautua and Charlotte Schnackenberg, so big thanks to them.
The finals were intense and the skill level amazing with the boys final played off between RBHS and TWoM with Rotorua proving too strong winning 14-5. In the girls final the KKC Year 9s took on the TWoM Year 9s and showed the results of their training coming away the winners 8-2. The grand final was between KKC Year 9 mixed team and TWoM Year 10 mixed team. It was a hard fought match but the Katikati kids ran out of gas and Te Wharekura took the victory 15-2. Thanks to Adam Walter for all his hard work organising and Steve Gilroy for the perfect condition of the four fields.
BOP ZONE ATHLETICS
Katikati College sent a large team of 43 athletes to the Tauranga Domain to compete in the BOP Zone Athletics Championships on November 21. The new track was in great condition and the many athletes from Rotorua to Waihi had a fantastic day, with only a couple of showers to avoid.
Top young athlete Gemma Groenewald showed her class and a clean pair of heels to her rivals, taking out the 800m and 1500m easily. These results gave her the overall second place for Year 8 girls.
Our two young throwers also took away first places with Ana Tuivai winning the Year 8 girls shotput and Malinga Taulani wining the Year 7 girls discus. Mackenzie Walter had a great result with a first place finish in the Year 7 girls 800m and Destinee Benge came home in third in the Year 7 1500m. Overall a fantastic day!