Laughtons back in national team
A NEW opportunity awaits a former world champion St Clair surf lifesaving duo.
Sisters Carla and Steph Laughton have continued their impressive comeback to the sport by being named to the New Zealand high performance IRB squad.
One of three female crews named, the pair trialled for the squad last month in Wellington.
That followed a win at the South Island IRB championships in March, their first competition in nearly four years.
They will attend the Australian championships in July after which one crew will be selected to compete at the world championships.
It is the first time since 2003 New Zealand has had a national IRB squad, something Carla (33) said was exciting.
In the past 15 years, crews have entered the world championships via their clubs, which the sisters did when they won the women’s tube rescue world title in 2012.
Making the squad had not been on the duo’s radar, having taken a ‘‘see how it goes’’ approach initially.
Indeed, it is going well. However, while excited to be selected, they were not getting too carried away.
‘‘It’s pretty cool; it’s exciting that we’ve been selected to be in the team,’’ Carla said.
‘‘But there’s huge milestones to be met before we get selected to be in the New Zealand crew.
‘‘The other girls that they’re looking at, they’re pretty slick, they’re pretty fast.’’
The selection meant another cold winter of training for the duo, although that was not necessarily a bad thing.
Carla said they were enjoying their return to the sport and were trying to make the most of every opportunity.
‘‘I’m really enjoying being back in swimming and running and gymming and getting back fit.
‘‘I guess you probably have more of an appreciation for being able to do it.’’
While another world title would be nice, the duo were concentrating on their performance.
‘‘You never say never, but our focus is probably more on getting faster and fitter, racing the perfect race and trying to make our performances the best we can.
‘‘That’s probably the way we look at racing.
‘‘Trying to have a really good race and doing the best that we could have done and not being satisfied to win a gold or a silver, or whatever it is, if you haven’t put that perfect race in place.’’