By Grant Knight

To end off the far north surf lifesaving season, most clubs send a team down to Mackay for the North Australian Championships.

Port Douglas SLSC this year had a small contingent of one under 11, three under 12's, seven under 15's as well as three masters competing. So with only 14 competitors, it was a tremendous result of an overall position of 9th out of 19 clubs.? ?The weekend started with a pool rescue competition on the Friday as well as champion lifesaver. Moses Hannett-Wade competed in the champion lifesaver which involves water and beach events as well as a written assessment, CPR and live patient assessment. A great event that produces very competent all round life savers. Moses also went on to compete with everyone else in the pool rescue competition.

A couple of stand out results included Oliver Lukin and Murray Colbridge missing out on a bronze medal in the patient tow by a mere 0.03 of a second! Sophie Knight gained a bronze in 100 metre obstacle swim and Ed Lukin got a silver in the same event.? ?Saturday and Sunday saw the surf competition begin with rough conditions on the Saturday, calming down a bit on the Sunday. Every competitor made finals in most events with lots of fourths in team events and several medals as well.

Jonte Revell was looking good for the gold in the sprints until he decided to have a look around him. A great lesson learned by the young fella who ended up with 5th place in a photo finish! He won't do that again!? ?Murray and Oliver teamed up again to get a bronze in the board rescue, and Murray also got a silver in the 1km run. Mia Devine-Cameron and Tara Buls got a silver in board rescue, and Mitchell Knight and Josh Lukin also medalled in the board rescue with a bronze.

Mitchell Knight then went on to get a bronze medal in rescue tube and a silver in both the ironman and board race. This great effort also saw Mitchell chosen as part of the Queensland country team to take on the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast later this month.? ?Not to be outdone, the masters also put in a steller effort collecting a total of 99 points between the three of them, finishing an incredible 6th in the pointscore for the masters.. The highlight being reclaiming the board relay title winning by over one hundred metres!? ?So overall it was a fantastic event with everyone having a great time, which is by far the most important thing. A special thanks also to John Revell for looking after the younger kids along with Ruth Hannett and Mark Colbridge who did water safety all weekend.

Have a look on the full results here.