Gold Coast Commonwealth Games medallist Laura Taylor snares third gold at Aussies for Northcliffe

LAURA Taylor has completed her smash and grab raid on the Aussies, winning three gold from her three events before departing Western Australia on Thursday night to continue her national sporting odyssey.

Laura Taylor, of Northcliffe wins the under-19 surf race at Scarborough Beach in Perth. Photo: HARVPIX.COM

Laura Taylor has completed her smash and grab raid on the Aussies, winning three gold from her three events before departing Western Australia on Thursday night to continue her national sporting odyssey.

Taylor, who won silver in the 200m butterfly at the Commonwealth Games a fortnight ago, won the under-19 surf race on Thursday to finish her Aussies campaign with three gold.

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The 18-year-old helped Northcliffe to wins in the under-19 and open swim teams events on Wednesday and completed the treble in the individual race, beating rising ironwoman stars Jemma Smith, Naomi Scott and Brielle Cooper.

“To help out the team, I’m really happy with that and to get some exciting racing is good,” Taylor said.

“It’s nothing like the pool, you don’t have those variables that you do in the surf, with the starts and (swell), I’m not very good at that.

“To get a good start on that (individual) race, probably the best one out of the week, was pretty good.”

Commonwealth Games swimming silver medallist Laura Taylor, of Northcliffe SLSC, wins the women's under-19 surf race at Australian surf lifesaving championships at Scarborough Beach. Photo: HARVPIX.COM

But the combination of wins in the team events and her Commonwealth Games performance created an unexpected pressure.

“I felt a bit nervous getting on that line, I didn’t want to go out there and not perform,” Taylor said.

“Walking into the competition (on Thursday) morning, they were mentioning me over the loud speaker and I thought, now I’m known in the surf scene, so that put a bit of pressure on me … and I felt I had to perform.

“All those girls are really quick and they’ve got really good surf skills. To look behind in that swim at the end and see there were no waves, I was like, ‘thank the lord’.

“They would have come through. I don’t have that training every day in surf, I haven’t done this in a year now and I didn’t do any (surf racing) all season.

“To come out to Perth, it’s not as big as on the Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast, so to have that flat water and for it not to be choppy, it’s an advantage to me.”

There was no rest for Taylor though, who flew out of Perth on Thursday night to head to Sydney for the national age swimming championships in Sydney where she will tackle six individual events for the TSS club.

“I’m happy to go over there for my club and compete and help them out,” Taylor said.

“I’m doing five or six individual (events) and three relays.”

Taylor headed to Perth’s Scarborough Beach to help her club and indulge in what she had expected to be no-stress racing.

Bailey Armstrong led a Northcliffe trifecta in the under-19 surf race, finishing ahead of Riley Clout and Toby Wilson.

The trio, along with Mitchell Coombes, had led Northcliffe to gold in the surf teams on Wednesday.