Summerstrand defend title at SA Lifesaving Champs

Summerstrand, courtesy of their incredible nippers, defended their overall title at the 2022 DHL Lifesaving South Africa National Club Championships in Gqeberha.

Kings Beach and Newton Park played hosts to the annual elite competitive event of lifesaving and Summerstrand again maximized being at home, with all their best available to compete.

It is the biggest advantage when hosting as teams outside of the province don’t always have the funding to send everyone to the nationals, but credit to Summerstrand’s nippers for backing up the 2021 effort with one as impressive in 2022 when they again surpassed 1000 competition points in the respective surf and pool competitions.

Umhlanga dominated in the seniors and juniors surf events, much like Tuks and Harites had done in the pool but it was Durban Surf’s Melissa Corbett who struck gold in the highly anticipated senior female Beach Flags showdown against Plett’s 19 year-old South African international Ellen Kleinsmidt. The veteran Ryle de Morny, as he has done so often in the past decade, did the Flags and Sprint double for senior males.

Corbett and Kleinsmidt produced one of the big tussles of the three-day DHL LSA Surf National Club Championships at Kings Beach in Gqeberha, while De Morny, in the colours of Durban Surf, edged his long-time rival, friend and team-mate Chevan Clarke in a tense final.

South Africa’s finest lifesaving talent was on display all week, with the nippers in the surf spotlight for the first three days and the Newton Park pool for the final three days. The juniors and seniors started with the pool competition and finished the final three days delighting the crowd with some stunning races.

Pirates’ Luke Nisbet added the senior Board gold to his Iron gold,