Australians Sari McKee from North Cronulla and Kyle Mason from Wanda have made it a double, double for the Shire both taking out the 2km Beach run for Opens today after yesterday winning their respective Youth 2km events.
Sari finished first in the Open Women’s 2km beach run with North Bondi’s (AUS) Rique Miroshnik finishing second and Wanda’s (AUS) Emma Blanch finishing third.
While in the Open Men’s 2km, Kyle finished ahead of Lyall Bay’s (NZL) Liam Chesney and Cronulla’s (AUS) Nathan Breen.
The results in the distance beach events were a spectacular outcome for coach Jock Campbell from Wanda Surf Lifesaving Club who trains both Sari and Kyle as well as several of the other placed athletes.
“For Sari and Kyle this is a fantastic result, winning both the youth and the opens has never been done before at this level, they were both strong of mind today.
“Our squad works so hard and so consistently and on the day the athletes stuck to their plans and got a great result.”
Jock coaches’ athletes across several clubs with his squad members finishing: first, second, and third in the Open Women’s 2km beach run; first Open Men’s 2km beach run; first Men’s Youth 2km beach run; and first and third in Women’s Youth 2km beach run.
“I mainly coached sprinters, but I saw my first Open Men’s 2km race a few years back, in that race I saw three guys have a sprint finish. They all picked different lines in, no one knew who was going to win, they all crossed the line and fell over with exhaustion, and I was like this is the race for me and that’s when I started to focus on distance beach running.”
Jock has a strong background in professional sport including as the former head of physical performance for the Australian Cricket team.
“I have a very big passion for surf lifesaving and I have taken all of what I have learned through professional sport and put it into the surf environment.
“While technique, tactics and talent all play a part in competition, ultimately it is the athlete’s commitment to their training that makes or breaks their performance.”
