Country Championships, Pambula

A Mollymook contingent of over 150 competitors and supporters spent last weekend camping at Pambula Town Park with all enjoying the camping experience, in near perfect weather. Competition Director Denise Lofts recorded 45 Nippers and 60 Senior competitors entered. Denise thought it was very successful and it was great being part of such a big team.

Boaties
A fantastic effort by all the Boaties saw 9 crews entered and six making finals in the strong competition.

The forever formidable Masters crew of Rod Austin, Russell Bartlett and Len Bolin were without regular team mate Scott Waller but with Craig Matthews then Steve Hegarty replacing Scott and swept by Garth Brook, the crew managed to win the Masters Gold. This crew has been so successful over the years they must have more gold than the mint.

More Gold went to Jeff Loys crew of Wes Bean, Chad Venables, Mitch Brook and Neil Sullivan who rowed like champions to win the Reserve competition.

The A crew of Grant Griffin, Jason McDermott, John Hozack and Adam Backhouse impressed all and especially their sweep Marty Drysdale as they rowed into the bronze medal place in the Final.

The women's crew of Belinda Harding, Stacey Siegert ,Rebecca McKay and Denise Lofts rowed into 5th place in their Final.

Two U19 crews progressed their development to make finals. Brett Griffin, Aaron Smith , Gary Warburton and Michael Corson rowed into 5th place with Dane Matronardi, Tarun Whan, David Andrew and Kurt Lampe just beating them home to take 4th. The women's U19 crew of Amy Pollard, Gemma Smith, Elle Chapman and Gemma Hill finished all their heats in the carnival just missing a finals birth.

Board Ski & Swim
Young hotshots Adam Quealey and Gene Austin were the stand out performers of this team, with Geno taking second in the Open board race, then third place in the U19 Board behind club mate Adam in second.

Adam and Gene combined in the Board Rescue placing 2nd in U19's, then were unlucky when missing a medal to come 4th in the Open rescue.

Chris Brook combined with the two young guns in the Open board relay and they narrowly missed gold on the way to winning silver in a very gutsy effort.

Chris won a second silver in a very strong Open Ski competition, his ability on the water will only keep getting better as the major carnivals approach. Adams hard training efforts paid off when he won bronze in the U19 Iron Man.

Niel Blair finished 4th in front of Ken Banks in 5th place for the masters Board Race.

Coach Dave Munday was disappointed the swim races were held early and most of our medal contenders couldn't be there for the swim, he is very pleased with the progress of the team as it builds and is hopeful further training will bond the team to be highly competitive.

Simone Everett last competed for Mollymook sometime ago, but was a very welcome addition to early morning training last week and showed in her first club training session she is still a very competitive swimmer and board paddler. It will be great to see Simone back at carnivals in the black and white cap of Mollymook.

Beachies
Although missing 6 representative runners and some others through work and family commitments, the Mollymook Beachies still excelled in a very big strong field.

Melissa Cook 's hard training was rewarded when she was in fine form to come 2nd in a very fast U19 Beach sprint Final.

Brett Griffin rushed from the boat section to the beach sprint to come 2nd in the male U19 sprint followed in by Michael Shalhoub in third place. It'd be interesting to see how fast Michael could run now, with a little training. Michael is a longtime member of the beach team and he is yet to reach his full potential.

Melissa Cook's great form continued on into Open Womens Final when she won a second silver.

Mollymook dominated the Open Mens Final with 1st place to Jeff Orourke,2nd to Scott Emerich, and 3rd to the comeback champ Michael Shalhoub.
In Masters Beach sprint Di Le Strange came third in front of relay team mate Jane Henderson in 4th. Glenn Lofts was able to shrug off would be challengers in the Masters sprint , winning yet another gold with Kevin Whitford just missing the medals running in 4th against the speedy Lofts.

The Open Flags at Country carnival have been won by Mollymook's Glenn Beveridge for an incredible eight consecutive years, but with Bevo away on representaive competition duties in New Zealand it left the door open for many hopefuls this year. It was the old master of Beachflags Glenn Lofts who kept the prized Gold in Mollymook's safe keeping for a ninth consecutive year.

Loftsy then backed up to win the Masters Beachflags, again. Jane Henderson got in the medals with a hard fought third in the female Masters beach flags.

A huge field competed in the Open relays and two Mollymook teams progressed to the Final, Jeff O'Rourke, Scott Emerich, Michael Shalhoub and Glenn Lofts combined to win Gold, the other team of Anthony Austin, Kevin Whitford, Don Stedman and Sean Hendry were faster than many in the heats on the way to making the final but were unplaced in the final.

Mollymook's representatives running for NSW Country against New Zealand in the Tri series with the Central Coast. are Sprinters and Beachflaggers Glenn Beveridge, Steine and Blaise Lofts, Melissa Howard and Tegan Davies and they competed at New Zealands Ocean Beach last Sunday with all Mollymooks competitors winning all their events in a clean sweep for their Country representative team.

The only bad luck was that in the final relay of the day speed machine Stiene Lofts re-tore a hamstring that he'd slightly strained before leaving, their next competition is today, Stiene was unsure how his leg will be in the immediate future.

March Past Team
GOLD, GOLD, GOLD for Mollymook's march past team as they competed against the very best March Past teams country had to offer and won Mollymook's first medal in this competition in over 20 years. Coach and Standard bearer Tom Whelan has won medals at every level of this discipline, including many State and Australian Championships with his old club Freshwater .

It's a credit to his personality and dedication that in a year he has been able to build a winning team for his first Country Championships this week. Tom is taking this team of happy men and women very seriously and hopes to refine their performances to be competitive at the highest level.

Len Watt, Kyle Henderson, Keith Claxton, Sean Hendry, Ted Wilde, Mick Hampson, Sue Hardy, Peter and Lee Pontefract, Gary Wizniewski and Gareth Davies, all marched far better than they did the previous week at Collaroy to be deserved Country gold medallists, and with more than competent reserves in Rod Austin and Geoffrey Starkey the team seems well placed to continue improving.