NO FLOOD RELIEF FOR NAOMI BEFORE QUEENSCLIFF HIT OUT

Sydney Northern Beaches, January 9: A new look reigning world Ironwoman champion Naomi Flood will have her final hit out before next weekend's opening rounds of the Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Ironwoman Series on the Gold Coast when she lines up in the open Ironwoman at tomorrow's Queenscliff Open carnival.

Flood has not had the advantage of contesting Queensland's Ocean Assault Series in the lead up to this year's $200,000 Series but believes a new gym program will go a long way towards giving her an edge over her opponents.

The captain of the Inner Health Plus Northern NSW Hammers in this year's KNG Series will put the finishing touches to a preparation which saw her win nine events and lead the Sydney Northern Beaches to last year's NSW Inter-Branch Championships at Catherine Hill Bay.

"I've decided to focus on one event the iron woman - it will give me a chance to sharpen up and feel good about the up coming Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Series," said Flood.

"But if I'm feeling good in the morning I might also add the single ski but at the moment all my training is focused on the KNG series so one race may be enough.

"I have had a great couple of weeks training and I'm feeling really confident about every leg of my iron woman race.

"I have worked really hard on gaining the edge by working on my weakest craft leg (the board) by doing specialised board training.

"I have added a entire new element to my training by starting a gym program and my strengths in the ski and swim have already improved.

"I have never done gym before and I have already noticed the changes in my body and the confidence it has giving me has been enormous.

"To start with I couldn't do a chin up and struggled with dips, but I'm now I'm bench pressing 65kg and can feel the difference lifting weights has made.

"The gym training has given me a massive confidence booster and it will definitely help me over come the hurdle of believing in myself more."

Queenscliff's Open carnival is the start of the ‘business end of the season' in the lead up to the annual double-header the Manly-Freshwater Australia Day carnivals on January 24 (Manly open events), January 25 (Freshwater open events/Manly boats) and January 26 (Freshwater boats).

Palm Beach will host the Branch Champions on February 1 (Boats), February 7 (Open) and February 8 (Juniors) while Swansea Belmont will again play host to the NSW Championships on February 21 and 22 (State Age) and February 26,27,28 and March 1 (Opens).

Scarborough, WA will again conduct this year's Aussies, The Australian Championships from March 17-22.