Local ‘surf lifesavers' take gold at World Championships in Holland

TWO members of the Cork Surf Lifesavers have secured gold in the World Championships.

Eilish Hart and Sharon Russell, members of the Cork Lifesavers team, took gold in the line-throw event at the Lifesaving World Championships in Holland last week.

The high-energy indoor pool event involves throwing a rescue line to retrieve a ‘victim’, who is positioned at a distance of 12.5m, within a 45-second time frame.

Eilish and Sharon secured the gold medal with a time of 18.6 seconds – a full 18 seconds ahead of the runners up. Afterwards, Sharon, who is from Dunmanway, thanked her friends and family for their support. And added: ‘I didn’t want to let my team mate down.’

Meanwhile, it is the second gold at world championship level for Eilish. She received her first gold in the 2008 World Championships for a board rescue event. After her most recent win, Eilish said: ‘I’m looking forward to showing my daughters my new medal when I get back to Clonakilty.’

The West Cork winners have set the Irish team off to a world-class start at the championships with more events scheduled to take place up to and including September 18th.

There are, in fact, a record number of Cork Surf Life Savers competing in this year’s World Championships following a fantastic summer of inter-club events.

Cork Surf Life Saving – which is based in Inchydoney and Youghal and is part of Irish Water Safety – is now the largest club of its kind in the country and sent a total of 35 members to compete in youth, senior and master categories.