AN elite team of representative athletes from all 11 NSW Surf Life Saving Branches will this weekend be fighting for bragging rights at the 2016 Interbranch Championships, which will be held at The Lakes SLSC on NSW’s Central Coast.
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The Interbranch Championships are a unique event on the surf sports calendar, with a maximum of 40 athletes from each branch, consisting of three male and female competitors in the under 12, under 13, under 14, under 15, under 17, under 19 and open age groups who compete in both ocean and beach events.
The South Coast Branch team includes Stirling Norwood (Mollymook), Tiffany Coote (Mollymook), Cooper Atkinson (Nowra-Culburra), Holly Abbey (Nowra-Culburra), Eilish Norwood (Mollymook), Danielle Holt (Mollymook), Keegan Norwood (Mollymook), Chloe Scott (Mollymook), Kyla Wall (Mollymook), Jessica O'Donnell (Nowra-Culburra), Breanna O'Donnell (Nowra-Culburra), Chad Poland (Nowra-Culburra), Lewis Betts (Mollymook) and Steine Lofts (Mollymook) .
With such a limited amount of athletes contesting each event, points will be at a premium during the two-day carnival, and finishing on the podium for their branch will be crucial in deciding who gets to take home the ultimate prize.
For the athletes, performances are crucial with the carnival being their last opportunity to push their chances of being named in the NSW Interstate team, announced later this month.
This year the NSW Interbranch Championships return to The Lakes, after the club last hosted the event in 2009 and 2010 and they will be out to improve on last year’s third place on their home beach.
Having being crowned champions for the last two seasons, Sydney Northern Beaches will be out to defend their crown, while fierce rivals Sydney will undoubtedly be pushing to reclaim the title they last won in 2013.
After six years of finishing third and fourth in the overall standings, both the Central Coast and Hunter teams will enter this year’s competition confident of ending the Sydney juggernaut, while Illawarra will also fancy their chances.
For the athletes from the country branches (Far North Coast, North Coast, Mid North Coast, Lower North Coast, South Coast and Far South Coast) will be using the event as their last chance to tune up against their bigger rivals before attention switches to February’s Stramit NSW Country Championships which will be held at South West Rocks.
Surf Life Saving NSW Sports Manager, Rob Pidgeon believes this year’s event will be keenly fought with all athletes at the top of their game for this, the first major NSW carnival of the 2016/17 season.
“The Interbranch is always a tough event with every Branch determined to do their best and score crucial points over their rivals. It’s always hard to predict a winner,” Pidgeon said.
“Sydney Northern Beaches will be doing their best to defend their success from last year, but I am sure the other branches will be hot on their heels.”