BALLARAT’s Lily Jordan has proven her versatility in her home away from home over the summer, excelling in the surf at Fairhaven.
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The 10-year-old Ballarat Grammar student was introduced to the world of surf lifesaving three years ago after being signed up for the Fairhaven Surf Lifesaving Club’s nippers program. A family beach house in Angleasea has allowed Lily to spend weeks on end in the surf throughout the summer.
At her most recent outing with the club, the Victorian Junior Surf Lifesaving Championships at Warrnambool, Lily came home with two golds medals.
Lily’s team of four were able to edge out 19 other teams in the surf teams competition, which involved a 290 metre ocean swim in swirly conditions.
The team were then successful again in the Acqua Cameron relay, which involved each team member completing a different leg of the competition which is made up of a wade, swim, board and run. Lily had to contend with huge waves on the cold Warrnambool weekend in order to help her team take home the gold.
The success was the spoils of months of hard work for the youngster, who had been training for the championships every weekend from December 2015.
For Lily’s efforts over the summer she has earned The Courier’s Intersport SportzBiz Junior Sports Star of the Week.
Lily’s father Scott said the grade five student had taken to the sport with ease since first becoming involved in the club’s junior program.
She's been swimming for a long time and it was just sort of an extension of that, and it seems to come naturally to her.
- Scott Jordan - father
“She’s been swimming for a long time and it was just sort of an extension of that, and it seems to come naturally to her.”
The youngster will now take to the still water for the winter, competing for the Ballarat Swimming Club and training two to three times a week. A gifted athlete out of the water, Lily also recently competed in the inter school cross-country running competition, placing second and earning a place in the regional event.
Jordan said while his daughter had shown skills in a number of different fields, the surf was where she felt most at home.
“In the pool you go as fast as you can and the fastest person wins, but in the ocean there’s different factors and you’ve got to be cunning,” Jordan said. “she keen to get her bronze medallion and be a lifesaver, and has ambitions to become a professional ironwoman, but we’ll see.”
The Courier Intersport SportzBiz Junior Sports Star of the Week receives $50 Intersport SportzBiz voucher.
