NIPPERS NATIONALS KINGS BEACH 2010

Nippers Nationals this year was held at Kings Beach from Thursday to Saturday. Our U14 team was a strong team but was beaten in most categories by the Fish Hoek team and the Durban Surf team. Ally was chosen to represent the Eastern Cape team of Nippers in the Inter Regional competition. The inter regionals took place on the Thursday morning and we did not do very well at all. This competition is a prestige event and there are no prizes and no medals awarded.

After lunch the Nippers main event started with the March Past. Then we did most of the team events. The weather threatened to worsen but in the end we had a great afternoon of competition. The following morning did not turn out so well and the day ended with us sheltering behind jackets as howling westerly threatened to blow us all into the ocean. Amazingly the Nippers survived the day and only a few of the tents suffered.

Saturday morning was the last day of the competition. This morning we arrived in a drizzle but shortly thereafter the clouds cleared up and we had the most stunning day of events. Surprisingly our U10 and U12 teams were doing particularly well.

Here is an email sent by Lee to us just after the Nippers Carnival that was held in Mid January.
Now in April we had (unbelievably) beaten Kings Beach.
U10
3 Plett 133 2 Summies 185 1 King’s Beach 360
Top Competitor Boy Corrik VD Wath
We need to work hard with our U10’s as this is where KB is killing us!
U12
3 Plett 171 2 KB 241 1 Summies 286 – well done!
Top Competitor Girl Jamie Lee Engelke Craig Dagleish was second in the boys section!
Keep up the great work, U12’s
U14
3 Plett 147 2 Summies 290 1 King’s Beach 299 – by a mere 9 points!
Top Competitor Girl Christie Vaughan
Well done, U14’s this was a much better performance. I am confident we can overtake KB at EC Champs, as long as we have the same support as yesterday!
Let’s work hard in all age groups to improve our performance for EC Champs!
Regards
Lee Kemp

The end result of Nippers Nationals was that Summies was placed third against Durban Surf and Fish Hoek. Kings Beach was placed Fourth and Plett followed shortly thereafter. To me this was a huge boost for Nippers in the Eastern Cape.

The Summies parents were all incredibly proud of our Nippers who had done so well for their club.
Here is one of the articles that were published after the event.

Interesting read. There is an article on the SA Nippers Event.....
www.mype.co.za

Thought you might want to forward it on to other nippers parents...


www.MyPE.co.za: Eastern Cape nippers excelled at the Lifesaving SA Nipper Nationals that ended at Kings Beach on Saturday afternoon 10 April, winning 19 national titles, 16 silver medals and 21 bronze medals for a haul of 56 medals of the 174 at stake during the three day contest.

The Summerstrand Surf Lifesaving Club's Nipper team placed overall third, just ahead of the host club, Kings Beach, who placed fourth. Defending champions, Durban Surf, retained the Grand Aggregate Shield with 552 points, followed by last years runners-up, Fish Hoek, 488. Summerstrand scored 446, and Kings Beach, 350. Big Bay placed fifth, with 273 points.

Other clubs in the top ten were sixth placed Pirates, 210, followed by East London, 102, Plettenberg Bay, 100, Umhlanga Rocks, 88, and Scottburgh, 84. Hobie Beach placed eighteenth, with 14 points.

Pirates won the Under 10 age group, scoring 147 points to Summerstrand's 125. Hosts Kings Beach placed third with 118 points, followed by Big Bay, 116, Durban Surf, 108, Scottburgh, 69, Fish Hoek, 52, East London, 44, Umhlanga Rocks, 44, and last years U10 champions, Plettenberg Bay, slipped to tenth, with just 35 points.

Eastern Cape nippers won 17 medals of the 54 at stake in the Under 10 age group, claiming seven gold, four silver and six bronze medals. East London's Joshua Fenn won two titles in the run-swim-run and surf swim and his team placed third in the taplin relay, with Joshua and Matthew Fenn, Jamie Breetzke and Matthew Rustenberg excelling.

Plett's Challenge Gobo won the beach sprint, with Summerstrand's Thomas Luck a close third, and Erica van Rooyen (Summerstrand) just missed gold in the girls sprint, placing a close second. Kings Beach's Tamlyn Gill sprinted away from the opposition to win the beach run in the difficult gale force winds on Friday afternoon, with Erica van Rooyen placing second. In the boys race, Kings Beach's Jamie Riddle placed second, with Thomas Luck third.

Summerstrand won the double in the flags, with Jacques du Plessis winning the boys contest, from Runaldo Pedro (Kings Beach) who placed second. Summerstrand's Erica van Rooyen won her third medal with gold in the girls flags, and teammate Jenny du Toit placed third. Plett's Emma Lund was third in the girls bodyboard and the Kings Beach team of Jamie Riddle, Joshua Oosthuizen, Steven McGillivray and Runaldo Pedro won the beach relay. Riddle, McGillivray and Oosthuizen placed third in the board relay.

The Under 10 "Competitors of the Championships" titles were won by Michael McGlynn (Durban Surf) and Alice Edwards (Pirates). Summerstrand also claimed five fourth placings in the U10 age group, and Kings Beach also just missed out on the medals in three of the events.

Durban Surf scored 249 points to win the Under 12 age group, displacing the defending champions, Summerstrand, who slipped to second place with 206 points. The final points difference between the two clubs was similar to the previous year. Fish Hoek again placed third, with 143 points, followed by Big Bay, 119, Marine, 76, Kings Beach, 61, East London, 57, Strand, 50, Plett, 38, and Clifton placed tenth with 20 points.

Summerstrand's Lara Odendaal was the Under 12 girls "competitor of the competition", winning one gold and four silver medals. She won the bodyboard title and was runner-up in the board, surf swim, run-swim-run and iron nipper contests to clinch the top title in her age group. Matthew Meyer of Marine won the boys award, with two golds and a silver medal.

Summerstrand's Jamie-Lee Engelke was another star, winning the surf swim and placing third in the run-swim-run.

The East Cape youngsters clinched all the beach titles in the Under 12 category as they won nine gold, six silver and five bronze medals for a total of 20 of the 60 at stake in the age group.

Summerstrand nippers claimed the unique clean sweep in the boys flags, claiming the top three spots with Craig Dalgleish (gold), Stefan Ungerer (silver) and Jonathan Coffey (bronze) achieving the rare feat. Dalgleish and Ungerer teamed up with Amber-Rae Zeelie and Bonga Mosola to win the exciting beach relay.

Summerstrand recorded another double when Amber-Rae Zeelie won the girls beach sprint title, with East London's Jodi Froneman third, and Craig Dalgleish won the boys sprint, with East London's James Bruce a close second. Bruce also excelled to win the beach run title.

Summerstrand's Shimone Gordon won the girls beach run, with Plett's Kayla Verryne third, and East London's Jodi Froneman won the girls flags, with Camryn Riddle (Kings Beach) third. Summerstrand just missed out in the medals in five events, with fourth placings in four girls events and one boys race.

Fish Hoek nippers scored 293 points to dominate the Under 14 age group, ousting the defending champions, Durban Surf, by almost 100 points. Durban Surf slipped to second place with 195 points, followed by Kings Beach, 171, Summerstrand, 115, Pirates, 56, Alpha, 54, Warnadoone, 41, Big Bay, 38, Plett, 27, and tenth placed Umhlanga Rocks, 24.

Fish Hoek youngsters won 14 of the 20 titles and they also recorded two clean sweeps and five first and second placings to win by almost 100 points. The local nippers were restricted to just three titles and six silver and ten bronze medals, totaling nineteen medals of the sixty at stake in the age group.

The local clubs dominated the Under 14 beach relay, with the Kings Beach team of Tristan Lasevicius, Lamond Bouwer, Mark Fish and Kurt Wicht excelling to win gold, with the Summerstrand team of Luke Hepburn, Tristen Jones, Layla Campher and Tainne Finn a close second. Hosts Kings Beach also won the bronze medal, with Jeremy Ward, Matthew Howes, Micaela Smith and Sebastian Pau third. Another Summerstrand team placed fifth.

Jeremy Ward (Kings Beach) won the run-swim-run and teammate Kayleigh Graham placed third in the girls race. Both Ward and Graham placed third in their respective surf swim contests, and Kurt van Staden (Summerstrand) placed second in the boys race.

Plett's Dylan van Wyk won the boys beach run, with Kings Beach's Tristan Lasevicius second in both this race and the flags contest. Sebastian Pau (Kings Beach) placed third in the flags and teammate Kelsey Vaughan was third in the girls flags, with Britney Linder (KB) sixth. Bronze medals were also won by Dylan van Wyk (Plett) and Layla Campher (Summerstrand) in the beach sprints, and Matthew McGillivray (Summerstrand) in the bodyboard.

The Kings Beach team of Jeremy Ward, Greg Aubin and Matthew Petzer placed second in the tough bodyboard relay, ahead of Summerstrand's third placed team of Kurt van Staden, Matthew McGillivray and Christie Vaughan. The Kings Beach team of Kurt Wicht, Greg Aubin, Jeremy Ward and Tristan Lasevicius won the silver medal in the taplin relay, with Summerstrand fifth and Kings Beach also sixth. Kings Beach just missed out on the medals in three other events, with three fourth placings.

Fish Hoek's Nicholas Notten won three gold medals to win the overall Under 14 "Competitor of the championships" title and teammate Amy Hare dominated the girls division, winning two golds, two silvers and a bronze medal.

The 693 nippers from 33 clubs around the coastline had to contend with an oil slick on the Thursday afternoon, gale force westerly winds on the Friday, and rain squalls on the Saturday morning.

"The nippers, who are the future voluntary lifesavers of our movement, adapted to the varying conditions and the squad of safety officers ensured that everyone had a great time", said Lifesaving South Africa National President, Dylan Tommy, who also praised the organizing club, Kings Beach, on a great effort and for hosting a wonderful championships.

Source: Stanford Slabbert.