Perfect conditions for Shellharbour

SHELLHARBOUR turned on near perfect weather and surf for their annual Shellharbour Surf Lifesaving Carnival on Sunday.

The welcoming conditions encouraged large numbers of juniors to participate on the beach and in water events, many tackling swim and board events for the first time in competition.

Clubs from Mollymook, Nowra/Culburra, Shoalhaven Heads, Kiama Downs and Warilla/ Barrack Point joined the host club to turn out some great racing and results on the day.

Shellharbour proved its strength in beach events again with the club filling many of the top six places across all age groups.

Some of the strong performances included under 8s Casey-Lee Bedford, Casey OKeefe, Jye Tarne and Kade Szackacs, under 9 beach sprinter Hayden Waples, with Luke Watts and Jai Field dominating in both flags and sprints in the under 10 years.

In the under 11s Meg Keeling and Chad Tarne both claimed second in their respective beach sprint finals, with Jordan Field, Mikayla Rose and Harry Keeling taking top three places in the 12s.

Kari Ryan backed up her strong performances in the water with a placing in the beach sprint final and then teaming up with Chelsea Flood, Alexandra Westlake and Stefan Tarne to take out the beach relay.

Other beach relay teams to produce greta results were U/8 teams finishing 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th, U/9 boys, U/10 boys, and the composite U/12team.

Tiarna Edwards, Rachel Hobson and Grace Crampton finished one, two, three in the 14 years girls sprint.

Shellharbour then rounded off their great performance on the track by their teams filling all three places in the all age relay.

One of the highlights of the day was the march past, with Shellharbours Mummys March Past Team taking to the sand for the first time.

This group of Mums have shown there is an event for everyone in Surf Lifsaving.

Training for the more than a month, the ladies proved they can produce the skills that can lead them to Country Championships at Port Macqarie in January.

Shellharbour now head into a busy couple of weeks of events.

This weekend sees their club head to Corrimal for round 2 of the Sydney Water Surf Lifesaving Series.

On Sunday they are back on their home beach for the first round of their Club Championships Series.

The following weekend an invitation is extended to everyone including past and present members to join the club in celebrating 70 years of service to the community at its 70th Anniversary Ball to be held at the Sea Spray Function Centre at Shellharbour on November 24.

The evening includes a three course dinner and live entertainment for $50/person.

Tickets are available from Jo Helson on 4296 9436 or Helen Burton 42963527 or 0409 963 500 only prior to the night.