Hurley’s Gold, Gold, Gold….and more
Wollongong’s Robert Hurley has starred at the Oceania Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand. The Australian team consisted of young Australian swimmers just outside the Olympic squad with their main rivals being the New Zealand Olympic team. After the four days of the event he has picked up 6 golds and two silvers as well as a number of championship records.
In a hectic program Hurley’s medals have been in the following events:
Photo: Hurley shows his freestyle dive (From World Short Course Championships in April 2008)
Day 1: 200m freestyle: Gold medal in 1:48:84 a championship record (CR); 100m backstroke: Gold medal in 55.04 (CR)
Day 2: 50m backstroke: Gold medal in 25.64 (CR); 4 x 200m freestyle relay; Gold medal in 7:25.63 (CR)
Day 3: 400m freestyle: Gold medal in 3:53.56 (CR); 200m backstroke: Gold medal in 2:01.23 – a CR again!; 4 x 100m freestyle relay: Silver medal
Day 4: 4 x 100m medley relay: Silver medal – but Hurley broke the Championship record in the opening backstroke leg in recording a time of 54.91
Photo: Hurley shows his backstroke dive (From World Short Course Championships in April 2008)
Many of the championship records Hurley has broken were set in 2006 by current Australian Olympic team members, so it augurs well for Hurley’s future World Championship (2009) and London Olympic (2012) aspirations.
Overall the young 24 member team pushed the 36 member Kiwi Olympic team all the way to just miss out on the best gold medal tally (NZ 20, Australia 17) but score more overall medals (55 to 46). Story sourced from www.swimming.org.au
For more stories about the rise and rise of Robert Hurley click on http://wollongong.sportslive.com.au/index.pl?page=1798
Eryn Shipp to play in the United States of America.
Illawarra baseball player Eryn Shipp will realise a childhood dream when she departs on June 12th bound for Boston, Massachusetts. (MA). 22 years old Eryn, who has been an Illawarra and Country New south Wales representative for over five years, was the first local female to play with Country New South Wales at the Australian Women’s Championships. She has also put a lot of work back into her sport being the Secretary of the Illawarra Junior Baseball League for the past two years and instrumental in developing a junior female program in the region.
Eryn has been invited to participate in the North American Women's Baseball League (NAWBL) along with players from Canada, Japan and Australia as part of a cultural exchange program. The League conducts trials for all the participating teams within the League, to ensure that the teams are evenly balanced with talent and to make sure the competition is strong and competitive.
The NAWBL will play a majority of this season’s games at Fraser Field in Lynn, MA, in total 16 games plus an All Star event at the end of the season. Competition runs from June 15th to August 17th. The club Eryn is expected to play with, Boston Pride, has arranged accommodation for her at Somerville, suburban Boston.
For more on this story click on http://wollongong.sportslive.com.au/index.pl?page=633
Kayaking – Golden Pursuit of Warilla’s Smith
By Reece Carter.
 DAVID Smith doesn’t cross his fingers or perform any other superstitious rituals when declaring he is going to Beijing to win a medal. The fact is he doesn’t need too. “Just thinking of winning and knowing what I have done and who I have beaten drives me to achieving success,” David says.
After three years of training through “blood, sweat and tears”, the Warilla kayaker secured his spot in the Australian Olympic Team earlier this year. The 21-year-old was the first selected in the K4 kayaking team and will set the pace from the front seat in Australia’s bid for Gold.
Simply put, the past twelve to eighteen months has seen David develop into one of the toughest competitors going around. During this time he’s endured both physical and mentally tough times in training but admits that it will be all for the best come August.
“Obviously all the sacrifices are added up and it equals the hard work. To become successful there has to be those sacrifices, there has to be the cliché blood, sweat and tears because they really do come.”
David’s record is impressive to say the least. Over the past three seasons he has managed to be the best K2 1000m paddler - all with different partners.
Along with competing at world and national level in kayaking, Smith is an accomplished surf lifesaver. He’s won an astonishing four Australian Titles and ten State Titles over the years. Not only that, he qualified for the 2004/2005 Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Ironman Series where he was up against champions like Ky Hurst, Dean Mercer and Zane Holmes.
Smith originally took up stillwater kayaking to help with the ski leg in the surf. However, a time came where he was caught pondering between the two sports, not knowing what one to focus on; surf life saving or kayaking. What David did know was that if he wanted to make Olympic stardom then he’d have to make a decision quickly. And that meant one sporting pursuit would overshadow the other, and it was kayaking.
For more on this story and photos go to http://wollongong.sportslive.com.au/index.pl?page=3049
Pirates take out Braves in Baseball
The week’s rain caused all but one Illawarra Baseball League venue to be unplayable for the scheduled round 9 fixtures. Bulli Pirates home ground at Thomas Dalton Park, Fairy Meadow was in a good enough condition for all three grades against Kiama Braves to get a run.
In the first grade game Kiama Braves started out as though they were going to repeat last week’s giant killing win over Berkeley Eagles by being 5-0 ahead of Pirates after batting in the top of the second inning.
From here on however Pirates progressively pegged the score back eventually going ahead 6-5 in the sixth. The turnaround came about through the pitching of Brendan Lower who came into the game in the third inning and allowed just one safe hit with no earned runs in the remaining seven innings.
Lower’s performance followed him being named Pitcher of the tournament after helping Country New South Wales to a win over Victoria Provincial in last weekend’s final of the 2008 Australian Provincial Championships in Darwin.
Lower was greatly assisted offensively in today’s game by the batting of Asa Schuster who batted a perfect 3 from 3 with 3 RBI’s. Schuster batted in two runs to get Pirates within one run in the fourth inning and was batted in by Lower as the go-ahead run in the sixth. He backed up again in the seventh batting in his third run.
Batting for Pirates, Brad Drain assisted Schuster’s effort registering 2 from 3 while David Jefford (2 / 3, 2 RBI’s), Evan Hayes (2 / 4) and Matt Sneddon (2 / 5) featured for Braves.
In next week’s round ten Major League fixtures Dapto Chiefs play Berkeley Eagles at Hector Harvey Reserve, Dapto and Kiama Braves play Bulli Pirates at Gainsborough Reserve, Kiama Downs. Cardinals have their first bye of the season in first grade but play Shoalhaven Mariners in lower grade games at Cringila Community Park. First grade games commence at 2.15pm.
Locals in All Schools Basketball Championships
Three junior representative players from the Illawarra Basketball Association participated in the 2008 NSW All-Schools Basketball Championships at the Penrith Valley Regional Sports Centre (PVRSC) recently.
Photo: Corrimal High School’s Lia Voorthuis
Kelsey Gardiner (Combined Independent Schools / Chevalier College, Bowral) and Lia Voorthuis (Combined High Schools / Corrimal HS) were both subsequently chosen in the NSW All-Schools team, which will play in Canberra in November.
The third Illawarra representative was Zac Delaney (Figtree High School), who played for Combined High Schools (CHS) Men's team.
Photo: Figtree High School’s Zac Delaney (Photos from www.photoexcellence.com.au )
CHS won the men's division, defeating CIS 68-60 and Combined Catholic Colleges (CCC) 98-96, while CCC defeated CIS 81-77 in the final game. The women's competition saw a three-way tie, with each team winning a game apiece. CIS defeated CHS 72-70, CHS defeated CCC 67-54 and CCC defeated CIS 64-60.
Two state Combined All-Schools teams were chosen on the day and will both represent NSW at the Pacific School Games in Canberra in November. For full match results and the two state teams go to http://wollongong.sportslive.com.au/index.pl?page=3047
Roller Hawks grab double
The "Highlube" Wollongong Roller Hawks have grabbed two big wins over the weekend, highlighted by triple-doubles to Tristan Knowles (twice) and Brett Stibners.
Friday night's clash with the West Sydney Razorbacks proved to be an easier task than anticipated, with the visitors reduced to just six players through the absence of Australian Paralympians Sarah Stewart and Grant Mizens, along with up and coming junior Katie Hill.
The Roller Hawks took full advantage of the Razorbacks lack of depth, dominating the game for a 22-point win behind triple-doubles from Australian Paralympian Knowles (34 points, 14 boards, 11 assists) and Stibners (23 points, 12 boards, 10 assists).
Sunday's game against Wenty Leagues Wheelkings at the Ryde Aquatic Centre saw Knowles grab another triple-double of 47 points, 15 boards and 15 assists to lead the Roller Hawks to a 101-87 victory.
The Roller Hawks host the Brisbane Spinning Bullets on the weekend of June 28-29, with both games to be played at the Shellharbour Sports Stadium.
"Highlube" Wollongong Roller Hawks 88 (Tristan Knowles 34 points, 14 boards, 11 assists; Brett Stibners 23 points, 12 boards, 10 assists; Reo Lewis 10 points, Jesus Martin 10) defeated West Sydney Razorbacks 66 (Troy Sachs 29 points, 15 boards; Nick Taylor 21 points, 9 assists; Darren Skuse 10 points)
"Highlube" Wollongong Roller Hawks 101 (Tristan Knowles 47 points, 15 boards, 15 assists) defeated Wenty Leagues Wheelkings 87 (Jeremy Van Asperen 31 points, 11 boards; Koen Jansens 26 points, 11 boards, 12 assists; Craig Cannane 13 points, Jonathon Simon 11)
Sport, Physical Activity and Health – free breakfast meeting
The Australian Sports Commission’s Active After-school Communities program is hosting an Active Sports, Active Kids breakfast for Illawarra sporting club representatives, in Wollongong on Tuesday 24 June 2008. Louisa Peralta, from the Child Obesity Research Centre, University of Wollongong, will be delivering a thought provoking presentation on sport, physical activity and health.
The Active After-school Communities (AASC) program is an Australian Government initiative providing free, structured physical activity programs to primary-aged children after school at schools and out of school hours care services. Involvement in the AASC program can provide your club members, coaches and volunteers access to a free coaching course and resources, payment for coaching, and opportunities to develop networks to increase your club membership.
For more information about the breakfast and the Australian Sports Commission’s AASC program, contact Tracey Mogensen on 02 4257 8198 or tracey.mogensen@ausport.gov.au by Friday 14 June 2008. Website: http://www.ausport.gov.au/aasc
Junior Wolves games cancelled
Due to wet holiday weekend the games between the Wollongong Wolves and Macarthur Rams were cancelled.
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