Summerstrand claim Nippers Lifesaving SA surf championships

It was so close but it was an incredible testament to the quality of surf lifesaving among the Nippers in South Africa. Summerstrand won the DHL LSA surf championship, but they were pushed until the end by Clifton and Fish Hoek.

Summerstrand ended the three-day spectacle with 515 points and the two Western Cape powerhouses Clifton and Fish Hoek tussled with a second place, in which less than four points separated the clubs over three days of competition.

Clifton would end with 481.5 points and Fish Hoek would tally 478 points, but the 2022 Championships, devoid of Covid restrictions, was the biggest compliment to the sport’s next generation because this year the Western Cape, Kwazulu-Natal and Gauteng arrived with their best.

There were many gold medal winners among Summerstrand, in excess of 15, but one of the stories of the event for the romantics was that of Summerstrand’s Gous family.

It has become standard practice for Fanta Gous to be ever present in most events in the male Masters aged 45-50 years and for wife Tracy to be powerful and victorious in the female age group 40-45.  

Now it is the turn of the Gous Nippers, Sienna and Morgan to shine, and in spectacular weather conditions they did just this on Wednesday's final day of the Nippers Surf Competition at Kings Beach.

Sienna Gous (Photo:  Anthony Grote/Lifesaving South Africa)

Sienna, in the under 12s, won three gold medals and took silver after an intense rivalry with Plett’s Hannah de Necker, who was also a multiple-gold winner. What sets De Necker apart from most is that she proved as effective in the beach sprints and flags as she did in the surf, with the two disciplines demanding very different areas of strength.

Not to be outdone by Sienna, it was Morgan in the