Maroochydore Surf Lifesaving Club lose Queensland Youth Surf Life Saving Championship win

A Sunshine Coast surf life saving club was celebrating its success at a major event before the win was unexpectedly snatched from them and handed to a Gold Coast rival.

Maroochydore Surf Life Saving Club were celebrating their win at the Youth Surf Life Saving Championship when a result review snatched the victory shortly after they were crowned.

Celebrations at the Maroochydore Surf Life Saving Club have been abruptly cut short when results from a prestigious Nippers event were reversed days after they were crowned champions.

A counting mistake with the Queensland Youth Surf Life Saving Championship results at the weekend snatched the win from the Maroochydore by just a few points.

An email was sent to members of the club on Tuesday morning informing them the winner of the championship was in fact the North Burleigh Surf Life Saving Club, who won by just three points.

The scores for the Junior State Titles were revised to be 422 for North Burleigh, 419 for Maroochydore and Alexandra Headland came in third place with a score of 278.

The email, seen by the Sunshine Coast Daily, states the discrepancy came from the results of a heat that was not recorded.

Maroochydore Surf Lifesaving Club. Photo: John McCutcheon / Sunshine Coast Daily

Maroochydore Surf Life Saving Club president Robert Elford took the blow in good spirits and said he’d encouraged the club’s members to stay focused on the next event, adding they enjoyed their short time as winners.

“This is the second the year this happened to our club, the title has been taken from us in a recount before, but we are always in the top three,” Mr Elford said.

“We are great rivals and we will battle it out next time, we are very competitive despite the kids all being best of friends.

“We will just have to win by a bigger margin next year, it was a pretty standout competition this year between us and Burleigh.”

North Burleigh released a statement on social media explaining how the mistake was made.

“On review of the automated pointscore in the LiveHeats system, it was discovered that, due to some technical issues, two races were still showing as “scheduled”, yet they had been completed,” they said.

“These races should have been processed as “completed” prior to the final tally being recorded.”

North Burleigh Junior Activities President Brad Rodgers praised his club for its success.

“It is fantastic. It’s so brilliant to get the win,” Rodgers said.

“Obviously it doesn’t come in the circumstances you would like but in any case “Maroochydore were a formidable club from a points scoring perspective and no matter who won they were going to be deserving.

“We were aware of our results but because they don’t get published regularly each day and the fact it is held over three days, we didn’t know.

“It was brought to our attention from SLSQ. The original score had us behind by five points but we placed first and fifth in the race that hadn’t been counted. Those results gave us eight points.

“We have been working hard on our athlete development right from the time they start in our junior program in under-6s. It is about getting the kids in the water and confident in the ocean.

“When we combine that with a very good system of amazing caoches and good administration the kids soon find their path into the competitive side of things.”

Surf Life Saving Queensland general manager Kurt Wilson said the error did not take away from the results achieved the Maroochydore SLSC.

“Surf Life Saving Queensland regrets the human error that occurred in the calculation of the overall point score and offers its apologies to Maroochydore and North Burleigh SLSCs who were impacted,“ said Mr Wilson.

The Queensland Youth Surf Life Saving Championship was held at the Mooloolaba SLSC, with competitions taking place from Thursday to Sunday.