Scottburgh Surf Lifesaving Club member, Johnathan Rorke has been selected for the SA lifesaving team to compete at the 2017 International Surf Rescue Challenge.
The challenge will be hosted by Surf Lifesaving New Zealand at Tauranga from Thursday, 30 November to 3 December.
Johnathan is the son of Barry and Gillian Rorke and an environmental science student at Mangosuthu University of Technology. He competed for Scottburgh Surf Lifesaving Club at the SA Surf Lifesaving Championships held in Cape Town in April.
He won a gold medal for the senior beach sprint event and in the process, beat current world champion Ryle de Morny. “This was a massive achievement and we are very proud of Johnathan,” said Scottburgh Surf Lifesaving Club chairman, Gordon Gardner.
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“With our community support and a massive training schedule, Johnathan has a chance to take gold at the IRSC event in New Zealand.”
The cost per team member to compete at the challenge will be about R50,000 and like most SA national teams, this will be a fully self-funded tour.
“This is obviously a huge financial burden on all competitors and their families,” said Gardner. “Johnathan is urgently seeking financial assistance from our community to enable him to fulfil his life-time ambition by competing for South Africa.
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Contributions can be made to our club and it will be kept in trust for him until it is payable to Lifesaving South Africa. Any contribution no matter how small, can make a massive difference to this young man’s career and we could possibly have our own world champion walking among us soon.”
The club’s banking details are: Scottburgh Surf Lifesaving Club, FNB, account number: 53640530614, branch code: 260225.
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