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Waves Leisure Centre has been named the ‘2017 Life Saving Victoria - Pool Lifeguard Champions’ in an energetic challenge of lifeguarding skills and teamwork at the Monash Aquatic and Recreation Centre on Monday 1st May.

17 teams representing 36 aquatic facilities put their rescue and response skills to the test in the competition which aimed to challenge lifeguards’ abilities in a practical, safe and fun environment.

The teams were challenged in a variety of simulated scenarios in which they were scored on their execution. These included managing victims who had drowned, collapsed, had heart attacks and become unresponsive. The scenarios were designed to not only test the technical skills of the individual team members, but also their overall teamwork, communication and incident response capabilities.

Life Saving Victoria Event Manager Andy Dennis said that the intention was for the competitors to expect the unexpected, stating “the scenarios they were faced with were difficult but realistic, they could easily occur at the participants own facility.

“A variety of twists and complications were introduced throughout the different scenarios in addition to the initial incident, to make the situations even more challenging.”

To test stamina and general water skills, the teams took to the pool for race events including obstacle, tube and manikin relays. A line throw challenge was also completed by each member of each team as was a team theory paper.

The event scenarios were judged by accredited LSV trainers who were able to provide immediate feedback on development opportunities to the participants following each scenario. The scoring was heavily weighted towards the scenarios as well as the theory paper. The race events accounted for a smaller percentage of the overall score.

Emerging victorious was Waves Leisure Centre in a close run race with a total score of 248.25 points. They were followed by GESAC in second place on 223.5 points and Bellarine Aquatic and Sports Centre third with 218.

Individual event winners included:

• Spinal Management Scenario - Bellarine Aquatic and Sports Centre
• Drowning Scenario - Bellarine Aquatic and Sports Centre
• CPR Scenario - Glen Eira Sports and Aquatic Centre
• Theory paper - City of Melbourne
• Obstacle relay - Waterworld Geelong
• Tube relay - Peninsula Aquatic and Recreation Centre
• Manikin relay - Peninsula Aquatic and Recreation Centre

LSV acknowledged the support of Monash Aquatic and Recreation Centre and Sport and Education Development Australia (SEDA), for providing the event venue and support staff.

Images: The winning Monash Aquatic and Recreation Centre team (top), simulating a rescue at the event (middle) and competition action (below).

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