Sport
4 October, 2024
Tobruk hosts titles clash
ALL the breathtaking action is on this weekend at Tobruk Memorial Pool as teams across southeast and Far North Queensland get ready to compete for the title of Queensland champion and a chance to make it into the state team.
Fans of the more unorthodox sport, the underwater hockey state titles – hosted in Cairns at Tobruk pool this year – will enjoy the action as local team, the Cairns Crays, give their all to take top-spot against big challengers like Cooktown and Sunshine Coast tomorrow and Sunday.
A grade teams, B grade teams and under-15s and a total of 130 athletes will face one of their biggest challenges to become the best in Queensland.
Cairns Crays secretary Anton Williams said this would be a battle, not only to crown the best, but for an opportunity to join the Queensland team.
“The competition will go on Saturday and Sunday and on Monday in the morning there’ll be the Queensland team selection,” he said.
“The A grade will be contested between five teams from Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunny Coast, Cairns and Cooktown. B grade will have those same clubs while the junior grade will have only Cairns and Cooktown.
“Cairns won the state titles in 2022, so we will attempt to win again but A grade will be incredibly tight. There were some experienced players joining the Cooktown team, Cairns has recruited some strong Victorian players for mentorship and Brisbane – for the first time – have a very strong team. Gold Coast is always strong, captained by the current world champion in Kate Howard, and Sunshine Coast is relatively new, this is their first year in A grade and they’ll be coming in strong.
“The Cairns team has a very strong figure in captain Kai Wagner, 22, and he’s just come back from the world championships.
“This event serves as preparation for nationals in Ballarat in January 2025, so this is a good chance for teams to play high-level hockey because being a small sport we don’t have lots of opportunities to play in a competition together.”
Mr Williams said they encouraged the community to join and support their team from the grandstands.
“We definitely welcome public attendance in the grandstands. There won’t be TVs and cameras like there would be at a national competition, but there’s space for people to come and see the game from the side of the court,” he said.
The competition will run from 9am – 4pm each day.
