Rescue 2010 wrap-up
Well all bar one have returned from the World Life Saving Championships in Egypt. The team captain and one of our senior surf/craft coaches Downie Langthorne is still cruising the Nile and relaxing after 2 weeks of gruelling competition.
For Downie he had a mixed trip, tearing his hamstring 2 days prior to the international competition, missing out on A finals in the pool by .5 of a second on some occasions, getting crook with food poisioning.
As President Keith Caldwell mentioned prior to the team departing Australia, "This is a very young team and I am sure they will gain some experience in racing against the best in the world in the pool and at the beach with surf and beach events. Being in a new country and experiencing their cultural living will be something they will remember for the rest of their lives. Best of luck, have a safe and enjoyable trip "
Keith spoke with Ingrid Cardillo (Team Liasion Officer/Team Photographer) upon her return and she believed the whole team pulled together and supported each other in a quite different cultural environment. Some of the highlights are mentioned below and there are also photos posted in the gallery section of the website.
Each year that the Bulli team goes to the World Championships, they take a mascot which members have to wear, keep in their possession as part of team protocol. This time it was a child's floating ring (duck shaped) and it was known as Brittany (alias Brittany Sharkey one of our senior girls, an outstanding pool & surf swimmer) who couldn't make the trip. Basically you got to wear the ring if you were the quietest person the day before.
The high lights of Brittany's tour were; Jake walking the length of the pool deck with Brittany, fins, goggles, and towel, to the cheers of all the spectators, Matt jumping of the 10m diving platform to the cheers again, and Downie wearing Brittany for his ski warm up.
There was a penalty for saying the word “mine” (as this word did not mean you were a team player). The penalty was ten pushup on the spot no matter where you were. The team members were seen doing pushups in restaurants, at the pool, on the beach, and in the bus. We all had a nick name and were fined for not using them.
The bus trip from Cairo airport was supposed to be 2-3 hours was 5 ½ hours, we had to change buses half was as we had no air conditioning.
The accreditation centre only had one person booking everyone in. This made for a long wait.
The accommodation was far below any standards in Australia. The beds were so hard a few of the guys had bruised hips from trying to sleep on their side. The stove was ancient and on a LPG gas cylinder. We bought a new fry pan and pot for cooking and ate out of them. Nothing was clean. Nothing was finished well. The only good thing was the air conditioning.
The team mostly ate at a restaurant called “Spetra”. It was fantastic. The meals were huge and cheap. The most popular meals were the grilled chicken fajitas and pasta with meat balls.
The traffic in Egypt is pure chaos. They are all lunatics. We saw accidents and were very close to having accidents as well. The taxi drivers are crazy. Jake, Mitch and Sean nearly had a head on, as their taxi driver decided to overtake. The taxi drivers loved Brittany and were more interesting in playing with her than watching the road.
Where the team stayed, only 3 doors down was a mosque, so prays were happening at 4.30am every morning. So there were some very long days.
All of the team got to do some sight-seeing and experience Egypt at it's best!
Competition wise, the team raced well, with some personal best times in the pool and some very good racing at the beach. Heats, Quarters & Semi Finals were held and most of our team made finals in individual and team events;
Male Surf
Mitchell Fagerstrom 13th Sean White 21st Matt Crilley 32nd
Female Surf
Hannah Minogue 13th
Female Board
Hannah Minogue 6th
Iron-woman
Hannah Minogue 8th
Male Board Rescue
Mitchell Fagerstrom & Jake Hogarth 5th
Male Ski
Downie Langthorne 8th
Male Taplin Relay
Mitchell Fagerstrom – Jake Hogarth – Downie Langthorne – Matthew Crilley 7th
Female Ski
Hannah Minogue 5th
Female Beach Flags
Bernadette Cardillo 6th
Simulated Emergency Rescue Competition
Downie Langthorne – Matthew Crilley – Mitchell Fagerstrom – Ben Denner 9th