Flags (sport)

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This article is about the beach sport. For the identification banner, see Flag.

Five Time Canadian National Beach Flag Champion Katie Campbell Works her Magic (In foreground)

Flags is a training sport used by Surf lifesavers to practice beach sprinting and reflexes.

The game is played by sticking a series of objects (typically short lengths of hosepipe) into the sand in a row - these are the flags. The competitors lie facing away (and face down) approximately 20 metres away. Upon the signal, the competitors race to the flags and try to grab one. The difficulty in the sport is that there is always one less flag than there are competitors. The person who does not manage to capture a flag is eliminated, the flags are reset (removing one more) and the game continues until there is one person remaining - the winner. It is most frequently played by junior lifesavers, called nippers. The game progresses in much the same way as musical chairs.