North Bondi Crowned Junior Champions at NSW Surf Titles

North Bondi SLSC is the junior surf king of NSW but if the 2023 NSW Surf Life Saving Age Championships, proudly supported by Your local club, has taught us anything, it’s that there is depth aplenty across the state in surf sports.

A bumper finals day greeted competitors and spectators at Queenscliff Beach on Sunday, with two water zones and a flag pit in action as athletes contested the Iron, Board, Surf Race Cameron Relay and Beach Flags.

The team from North Bondi entered the day in third behind both Coogee SLSC and South Maroubra SLSC, but in the end did enough to leapfrog both of them on the way to finishing on top of the Age Championships overall point score.

Led by stars of the future Mia Hoo (U11 Female Iron champion) and Jack Wilkinson (U14 Male Iron champion), North Bondi would finish ahead of Coogee in second and a fast-finishing Wanda SLSC who out jostled South Maroubra to nab the final podium place.

Elsewhere in the Iron, Will Munro from Cooks Hill SLSC won the U13 Male, Amber-Skye Stevenson from Umina SLSC claimed the U13 Female in a tight finish, and home-town favourite, Felix Stephens from North Steyne SLSC was too good in the U12 Male. In the U11 Male, Jordan Prince and Dashiell Lonergan of Wanda pulled off an impressive one-two finish.

Kathryn Jordan of Coogee SLSC, Hayden McGregor of Terrigal SLSC and Billy Stewart of Lennox Head-Alstonville SLSC were among the winners of the Surf Race in the U12 Female, U14 Male and U11 Male, respectively.

The latter of those winners, Billy, is only a handful of weeks removed from a broken arm that kept him out of the Country Championships at Cape Hawke earlier in the year, so the gold medal was just reward for his ferocious training schedule since removing his cast.

Henry Whitehead of Manly LSC and Lily Egan of Cooks Hill were winners in the U13 Male and U14 Female Board Race, while North Curl Curl SLSC and Terrigal were big winners in the U13 Female and U14 Male Cameron Relay events.

The day ended alongside Queenscliff SLSC at the flag pit – earlier the site of the always impressive March Past, won by Mona Vale SLSC – as spectators surrounded the arena to watch the final medals of the Championships being earned.

Miller Siasat completed yet another Sprint and Flags double in the third-to-last race of the day, while other notable winners were Kayla Davies of Freshwater SLSC in the U13 Female – knocking off defending champion Jessica Majsak – and Michaela Jenkins of North Cronulla SLSC in the U12 Female category.

The 2023 NSW Surf Life Saving Championships, proudly presented by Your local club, picks back up again on Wednesday 1 March for the Masters Championships before Open athletes and Surf Boats hit the beach from Friday 3 March.

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