Records Fall And A New Champion Club At The Aon NZ Pool Rescue Championships

32 NZ records were broken and Mairangi Bay SLSC won the top junior and senior club award for the first time at the Aon NZ Pool Rescue Champs over the weekend.

Other key successes were Wainui SLSC topping the junior standings, Papamoa SLSC winning the Masters for the second year running, and Black Fin Fergus Eadie putting in an astounding personal effort, to win 5 individual and 5 team golds.

A further highlight was seeing NZ’s World Record-holding athletes from last month’s Surf Life Saving World Champs receive certificates.

Held at the Sir Owen Glenn National Aquatic Centre, 470 members representing 30 clubs competed. There were nervous first timers, recent World Champions and experienced masters. A committed group of over 60 volunteers helped to make the event happen.

Pool Rescue is an import entry-point into lifesaving sport and clubs as members are not required to hold their lifeguard award to be eligible to compete, unlike in ocean events. The championships represent the pinnacle of pool rescue in New Zealand and play a key role in developing and testing critical lifesaving skills in the pressure environment of competition.

For the first time, the championships had a naming rights sponsor, Aon.

“It was fantastic to support the event and see talented athletes from across the motu compete. Our communities are in good hands, as these lifeguards are fit and ready to patrol our beaches over the summer,” says New Zealand CEO for Aon, Melissa Cantell.

Races included a mixture of individual and team relay events incorporating swimming with fins, swimming under floating obstacles, and rescuing patients.

In the junior division (10-13 years old), Gisborne’s eight-person Wainui team proved size doesn’t matter by taking out a number of individual and team titles to be top of the junior points score.

Papamoa proved too strong in the masters (30+ years) division, winning the title for the second year running. Having a spread of athletes across all age-groups as well as strong relay teams ensured Papamoa finished well ahead of the next closest clubs of Ōpotiki and Red Beach.

In the masters events current Black Fin Chris Dawson (Midway) and Black Fins Coach Steve Kent (Mairangi Bay) battled it out, winning two individual gold medals and New Zealand records each.

In the senior divisions (14+) Mairangi Bay broke records as well as Mt Maunganui’s four-year reign on the overall title, the Paul Kent Memorial Trophy.

However, nothing could stop Mairangi Bay, led by Black Fins Zoe Crawford, Louis Clark and Fergus Eadie. Across the weekend, Eadie showed why he is arguably the best Pool Rescue athlete in the world, winning five individual golds and five team golds and now holds 11 NZ and 2 World records in the pool.

Mairangi Bay Coach Tom Lowe said “The title was never a goal of ours this weekend, but it’s a great reflection of an awesome team who raced hard for themselves, each other, and their club. It’s special to win the Paul Kent trophy for the first time given the history behind it.

“Pool rescue has huge value as it’s where people can try new things like swim events or use different equipment and it leads into other parts of lifesaving and sport.

“We did focus on relays, especially the mixed ones as they don’t often get to race those. I’m immensely proud of all the people involved in Mairangi Bay. It’s a big club and a lot of hard work goes unseen. Congratulations to all who raced, and thank you to all the officials, staff, volunteers, and sponsors that made a great event happen.”

SLSNZ National Event Manager, Matt Cairns was extremely happy with the event. “It was great to see growth in participation from previous years. It shows the sport is in good health and having Aon on board as the naming rights partner really helped bring things to life to ensure our members and volunteers had a great experience in and out of the pool”.

“We are hugely appreciative of Aon’s support as well as Pelorus Trust and Constellation Trust, who’s support ensures we can continue to make our events accessible and affordable for our members and volunteers.”

Full results & points can be found here

New Zealand Pool Rescue records can be found here

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