Australian Life Saving Team Squads for 2022 Life Saving World Championships Named

The Australian Life Saving Team (ALT) has today announced a squad of 30 athletes across Open and Pathway Squads who will look to retain the National Teams crown at the 2022 Life Saving World Championships.

Georgia Miller (Northcliffe) headlines the squad following an Aussies where she claimed 9 gold medals and was awarded Female Competitor of the Carnival in 2021. The ALT also welcomes back another 9 previously capped team members including Iron Series stars in Ali Day (Surfers Paradise), Kendrick Louis (Manly) and Harriet Brown (Northcliffe). Winner of the 2020-21 Iron Series, Lana Rogers (Alexandra Headland) will be on the hunt for her first ALT capped tour for Life Saving World Championships (LWC) 2022 held in Riccione, Italy.

Joining Miller & Brown from the Northcliffe club are male stars in the water and on sand with 2018 World Champs representatives in Matt Bevilacqua and Jackson Symonds, of whom the latter won his sixth Open Male Beach Sprint title at Aussies 2021.

Joining Symonds on the sand as previously capped ALT members will be Elizabeth Forsyth (Currumbin) and Bree Masters (Kurrawa) who have dominated female competition on the sand over the past number of years.

Amongst other International Life Saving events cancelled or postponed, the LWC2020 cancellation saw a number of youth athletes not able to represent their country last year in the underage competition.  Even without this opportunity a number of these athletes have made the jump into open and pathways squads highlighted by Zach Morris (Newport) along with star beach athletes in Isabellah Walker (Cronulla) and Sam Zustovich (Mollymook).

Morris will be ably mentored by his three Newport club mates as part of the Open Squad in Lizzie Welborn, Jemma Smith and Jackson Borg who along with Northcliffe have the largest representation amongst these squads.

An impressive group of 13 ocean and beach athletes make up an ALT Pathways Squad who have been identified with potential to represent Australia at future Life Saving World Championships in 2024 and beyond.

The Sunshine Coast Branch sees strong representation amongst this group of athletes with Alexandra Headland duo Tayla Halliday and Emma Woods making the step up from Youth Squads and will be joined by Maroochydore athletes in Hayden Cotter, Tiarnee Massie and Adam Palmer.

Sophie Watts (City of Perth) and Cloe Griffiths (Seacliff) represent an ever impressive group of beach athletes from Western Australia and South Australia who will be looking to further push their case for international representation once ILS competition resumes.

The 2022 Lifesaving World Championships Campaign has already seen the cancellation of Sanyo Cup 2021 (Miyazaki, Japan) and International Surf Rescue Challenge 2021 (Daytona Beach, USA) as international travel restrictions and mandatory quarantine periods remain in place stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

At this stage it is still planned for Life Saving World Championships 2022 in Riccione, Italy to go ahead as planned however will continuously be monitored how COVID-19 restrictions evolve following further vaccinations in Australia and globally.

With a significant lack of Pool Rescue competition over the past 12-18 months all Pool Rescue athletes will be added to these squads following the 2021 Australian Pool Rescue Championships.

Australian Life Saving Team – Squad