KING KY STILL WEARS THE SURF CROWN

SURF LIFE SAVING, April, 20 2013: Ironman Olympian Ky Hurst has proved yet again he is unmatched as the greatest surf race swimmer in the history of surf lifesaving by winning his ninth open title at the Australian championships at North Kirra today.

The two-time Olympian had to show running skills to match his mastery in the water to outsprint Cronulla’s Chris Allum and Elouera’s Dane Farrell in a blanket finish.
Hurst worked his way through the field to open a slight lead 50 metres from the beach before a small wave brought some of the trailing pack into contention.
About eight swimmers reached the beach together but Hurst was quickest to his feet and narrowly won the short sprint to the finish.
“That was the hardest thing,” the Kurrawa star said of the sprint finish. “I got up and my legs were just jelly; I’d used them quite a bit coming home.
“I thought I was starting to drop my rivals and I thought I might be able to pick up just a little runner to get me clear, but there was nothing.
“I remember taking a stroke at one stage and saw a whole heap of crew coming down and I thought, ‘here we go, it’s on’.
“This is what the Australian surf championships is all about. It’s a battle and it’s never an easy feat to come up with a win.”
Hurst was not ideally suited by the swim course, describing it as like putting marathoner Steve Moneghetti in a 400m race.
But Hurst understands surf swimming better than anyone and used the speed of his younger, faster rivals to drag him into the race.
“It’s really short for me but to know that I still have some sprint in me is a great thing,” he said.
Hurst will now turn his attention to the open ironman championship tomorrow, when he will contest the semi-final in the morning as he chases his fifth title in tomorrow afternoon’s final.
While the veteran was still winning in the men’s final, youth was to the fore as Manly’s Georgia Miller scored a surprise win in the open women’s surf race.
The 17-year-old rushed to the start line after winning the under-17 tube race further along the beach but swam clear of a classy field for her greatest triumph, finishing ahead of Northcliffe pair Eliza Smith and Miranda Bell.
And it was not the end of Miller’s golden day as she teamed with Manly clubmate Candice Falzon to win the open board rescue, before finishing with a silver medal in Manly’s open Taplin relay team.
“After winning the 17s tube the adrenalin was pumping and I just wanted to get out there and race,” she said.
“It was a long course for me, I’m pretty much a sprinter, but in the end I held on and got a little wave which is really good so I didn’t have to run up against anyone.”
Miller admitted the prospect of racing against older competitors was daunting.
“I’m very scared of the older girls, they are what I look up to in surf,” she said.
“They’ve always been my idols in surf, doing the Nutri-Grain series and doing so well.
“Hopefully one day I’ll be like that.”
Another teenager upstaging older rivals today was virtual unknown 15-year-old Mooloolaba speedster Nicole Kay who scored a stunning upset in the open women’s beach sprint.
Just 10 minutes after finishing second in the under-15 sprint final, the diminutive runner flashed home in the middle of the eight-runner field to defeat race favourites Laura Shorter (Helensburgh-Stanwell Park) and Melissa Howard (Kurrawa).
Howard’s clubmate Aaron Stubbs won the open men’s beach sprint ahead of Dean Scarff (Collaroy) and Kodi Harman (Kurrawa).
In the Olympian-studded men’s open ski race semi-finals, London 2012 K4 gold medallists Murray Stewart and Jacob Clear were eliminated in blanket finishes with upwards of 10 paddlers on the same wave.
Beijing kayak gold medallist Ken Wallace was another eliminated, while another London K4 winner, David Smith, was eliminated in the quarter-finals.
Tate Smith is the only surviving member of the London K4 in tomorrow’s final but the man he will have to beat is Avoca Beach’s Lachlan Tame, the two-time defending champion and an Olympic prospect for 2016.
In an awesome display of paddling, Tame raced away in his semi-final despite falling off his ski at the start.
The Taplin relay team events were won by Northcliffe (men’s) and North Burleigh (women’s).

Issued on behalf of Surf Life Saving Australia by

Ian Hanson

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