NINE Clare lifeguards are heading to Riccione, Italy for The World Lifesaving Championships later this month.
The biannual championship is the centre point of what are known as ‘lifesaving sports’, events such as obstacle swims, mannequin throws, surf races, beach sprints and board rescues. The tournament awards the world title to the most successful national team across all disciplines.
This year, in their bid for the crown, Ireland will be sending twelve junior and twelve senior competitors, of which the Banner County will be represented by Leana Liddane, Oisin O’Grady, Ferdia Hayes, Hugh Cronin, Leah McMahon, Aoife Madigan, Hannah Garrigan, Tommy Nunan and Dylan O’Brien.
Clare McGrath, Chairperson of Water Safety Ireland is a referee for the upcoming championships. She explained, “The tournament is in two parts, they have three days in the swimming pool where they do lifesaving races and they compete with a 70kg mannequin in different disciplines where they fit it with a tube, they carry it to safety and everything all with speed. Then there’s the other part of it that is three days where they do it out on the ocean. There’s distance swimming and paddling and rescue board races where one person, simulating a drowning person who needs help, is picked up at a marker and brought back to shore. So, there’s quite a few disciplines”.
The tournament has always been dominated by the South Pacific but Clare thinks Europe has developed a lot in recent years, “Australia and New Zealand are the teams to beat for the whole world but it has become stronger in Europe. There’s very strong French, English and Irish teams that are now making finals and challenging the main players and that’s with a lot of work we’ve done ourselves to bring our standards higher,” she said.
Almost a third of the national team is made up of Clare competitors which reflects well on water safety in the county, Clare said “A lot of our people compete very well which means Clare has very strong lifeguards. They’re fitter and stronger than those in most other counties.”
The world championships comes as a cap to what has been a hugely successful season for life saving sports in Clare. In the youth ranks Clare took first place in the national championships in Youghal, Co Cork in both the Nippers competition for children aged 8-14, and the junior section for those 14-18. Clare picked up 43 medals between the two categories including 17 golds.
