SCOTTBURGH lifesaver and now local hero, 21-year-old Johnathan Rorke, caused an upset at the Lifesaving South Africa Championships in Cape Town recently when he beat two-time sprint world champion Ryle de Morny.
Despite having been competing internationally for the past six years, De Morny turned out to be no match for Rorke and unsurprisingly, this has now sent shock-waves through the sports world.
Rorke will now represent the Scottburgh Surf Lifesaving Club at Worlds and has his eyes set on South African colors when he competes in trials for the South African team to attend the Lifesaving World Championships in Adelaide, Australia in November next year.
Being a non-profit voluntary community service organisation, the Scottburgh Surf Lifesaving Club relies heavily on sponsorship and fund-raising in order to help keep the club afloat.
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“We do not want to lose this local talent to the larger Durban clubs, who have considerable corporate sponsorship.
Thanks to our current sponsors such as National Lotteries’ Commission (Lotto) and SAPPI, we are able to partially fund some of these costs, but additional sponsorship is required in order for Johnathan and Scottburgh Surf Lifesaving Club to have a presence at the next World Champs,” explained the club spokesman.
Funding of this kind of event can run up to R50 000 per member and, as a result, the Scottburgh Surf Lifesaving Club were only be able to send two competitors to the SA Championships.
Lifesaver and current acting club captain, Siphiwe Otto Ndlovu was also funded and came 14th in the long run. Scottburgh Surf Lifesaving Club reached 13th place overall in the 2017 General Tire South Africa LSA Surf Lifesaving National Championships Senior final point score.
Scottburgh Surf Lifesaving Club will be holding fund-raising events from now until then in order to assist with training, equipment for the club and to get their champion competitors to the level where they need to be in order to continue making Scottburgh proud and on the map in the world of lifesaving.
With the great example set and interest created by Rorke, Scottburgh Surf Lifesaving Club hopes to increase its membership and create the same opportunity and training ground for lifesavers from Nipper levels through to Juniors and Seniors (from ages of 15 upward).
As Rorke proved, Scottburgh is ready to go up against the rest, regionally, nationally and even internationally.
Anyone who would like to assist with funding is requested to contact Trevor McAlpine on email chairman.sslc@gmail.com.
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