History in the Making for Schick Hydro Coolangatta Gold 2013

 
Surf Life Saving Australia, October 4, 2013: History will be made during the Schick Hydro Coolangatta Gold 2013 this month when some of the biggest names in surf sports converge onto the Gold Coast for Surf Life Saving Australia’s (SLSA) toughest endurance Ironman race.

For the first time, the SLSA event will showcase the women over the same physically challenging 41.8km long course as the men, from Coolangatta to Broadbeach and back.

They will race for record prize-money of over $100,000 – with $25,000 up for grabs for both the men’s and women’s long course winners. The largest single day’s prize-money in Australian Surf Sports history.

There will also be another new champion crowned in the men’s race which has seen eight winners in its iconic 11-year race history.

With defending champion Ali Day sidelined with shin splits and five-time winner Caine Eckstein informing organisers this week that the return of the Epstein Barr virus had also forced him out of a tilt at his sixth crown – it leaves the door open for a ninth champion.

Former Australian ironman champion Nathan Smith – a four-time podium finisher who has three times tasted defeat at the hands of Caine Eckstein (2008, 2009 and 2010) and once to Zane Holmes (2006) – will start as the favourite to take the coveted crown back to his beloved Cronulla Beach.

Victory would see the trophy return to NSW for the first time since Darren Mercer’s win for Thirroul in 1992 and before that in 1984 and 1985 when Manly’s Guy Leech won the inaugural Golds.

Breathing down his neck will be another adversary in former Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain star and former Australian Taplin Relay and National Board champion Hugh Dougherty from Tugun – who is back in The Gold hunt for the first time in seven years.

Dougherty showed he was in good touch, winning the four-kilometre Jacob Lollback Memorial Paddle at Yamba last weekend.

Then there is the younger brigade in two-time podium finisher from 2010 and 2012 in Mooloolaba’s Josh Minogue and his training partner from the Michael King stable Matt Bevilacqua, Elouera’s Dane Farrell, last year’s fourth-place getter Michael Booth and last year’s seventh-placegetter, Gold Coast-based former South Australian Sam Fuller in a 50-strong field.

The women’s long course has attracted defending champion Brodie Moir, 2011 champion Courtney Hancock, five-time podium finisher Elizabeth Pluimers, noted endurance surf star Jordan Mercer and three-time top ten finisher Tara Coleman.

“With both Ali and Caine out it opens the door for another new champion and the way Nathan Smith attacked the Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Trial he showed he meant business and was ready to give The Gold a red-hot go,” said SLSA’s Schick Hydro Coolangatta Gold spokesman Ian Hanson.

“He is a proven performer over the course on numerous occasions and was ready to take on the best of the best but this could now be the year of Nathan Smith – if he can add the Gold to his repertoire of titles it will put his name up in lights as truly one of the all-time Ironman greats.

“There is a certain pulling power about The Gold that lures back so many athletes who want to give it just one more try and with the girls doing the long course for the first time we expect the event to grow even greater in coming years.

“The big question is can Brodie Moir become only the second back-to-back winner after Hayley Bateup and Alicia Marriott and of course the first long course winner?

“Or will Courtney Hancock add her second Gold to her two Aussies crowns and her Series victory?

“It is also encouraging to see international competitors from Great Britain, New Zealand and France take up the challenge of the Schick Hydro Coolangatta Gold as the SLSA continues to build the event overseas.”

Minister for Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games Jann Stuckey stated the Queensland Government was proud to support the Schick Hydro Coolangatta Gold through Tourism and Events Queensland as part of a growing calendar of sporting, cultural and regional events for the region.

“The Coolangatta Gold is an iconic Australian event and considered one of the most physically challenging competitions in the world, attracting Australia’s elite Ironmen and Ironwomen to the Gold Coast each year,” Ms Stuckey said.

 “Major events such as this demonstrate the Gold Coast and Queensland’s ability to host high-quality international sporting festivals as we look toward the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.”

Since the Coolangatta Gold was re-introduced onto the SLSA calendar in 2005 the men have raced the Long Course and the Women the Short Course.

However, in recent times, the growing demand for women to compete in the long course along with the men has now seen women graduate to the full distance and, coupled with an increased profile of Australia’s Ironwomen, has helped attract a major naming rights sponsor in Schick Hydro.

It has allowed SLSA to increase the overall prize-money from $65,000 in 2012 to $101,550 in 2013 – with the winners of both the men’s and women’s Long Course events to receive a winner’s purse of $25,000.

Second placegetters will each receive $7,700 and third placegetters $4,675.

When the cream of Australia’s Ironmen and Ironwomen gather on the Gold Coast for this iconic race they will each be racing for a share of $47,275 – with prize-money on offer for the top 10 finishers in the Long Course event on Sunday 20 October.

The 41.5km iconic torture course from Coolangatta to Miami (via Broadbeach) and return through North Burleigh, Burleigh Heads, Currumbin and Bilinga will be open to Elite Men and Women, Masters Men (30-39 and 40-49) and Open Team’s for Men and Mixed.

In another breakthrough the Schick Hydro Coolangatta Gold weekend will see all Short Course events (from Coolangatta to Miami and return) over 33.36km race on Saturday 19 October with men’s field attracting two-time Australian Ironman champion Pierce Leonard (Southport), Nutri-Grain Series podium finisher Kendrick Louis (Newport) and Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Series qualifier and this year’s Aussies runner-up Tanyn Lyndon (Northcliffe).

• Elite Men and Women with a Total of $7,000 prizemoney (First $2,000; Second $1,000 and Third $500).
• Under 19 men and women;
• Masters Men 40-49; Over 50s; Masters Women 30-39 and Over 40s;
• Open Women’s teams and;
• Under 19 Teams for Men, Women and Mixed.

SCHICK-HYDRO PARTNERSHIP

The Schick Hydro one-year partnership follows the huge success of last year’s Coolangatta Gold, staged at Coolangatta for the first time in the event’s decorated history – an event which was first held in 1984 and 1985 before surfacing again in 1991 and 1992, and its successful long term arrival in 2005.

The event has become synonymous with Surf Life Saving Australia and the Gold Coast since the birth of Australia’s toughest Ironman race in the movie The Coolangatta Gold.

Since then the Coolangatta Gold has been conducted 12 times with the 2005 event including Ironwomen, Masters and Teams events for the first time.

SLSA is delighted with the arrival of Schick Hydro - Schick's latest and most advanced shaving system for men and women - as its naming rights partner in 2013.

The Schick Hydro Coolangatta Gold is supported by the Queensland Government through Tourism and Events Queensland as part of a growing calendar of sporting, cultural, business and regional events across the state.

2013 Schick Hydro Coolangatta Gold Prize-money

Schick Hydro Coolangatta Gold Entries (as at Wednesday October 3. Final numbers TBC)
View entire message

Master's

 Issued on behalf of Surf Life Saving Australia...

Ian Hanson

FOLLOW HMG NEWS & EVENTS ON TWITTER/LIVE UPDATES 

 

Hanson Media Group | P O Box 299 | West Burleigh Qld 4219
Phone: +61 7 5522 5556 | Mobile 0407 385 160 | Fax: +61 7 5522 5557
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | www.hansonmediagroup.com.au