HMG RADIO PODCAST PREVIEW: 2009 nib COOLANGATTA GOLD

October 16: There is something magical and intriguing about the nib Coolangatta Gold, the name itself conjures up all kinds of thoughts.

Mostly pain, torture and exhaustion - but at the end of the race it's a feeling of achievement of taming the ocean and its elements.

On Sunday morning at 7am a record open men's field of 60 supremely fit Ironmen will again set out from Surfers Paradise to conquer Ironman racing's toughest test.

A race dubbed an Ironman Tri Aquathon and first won by Guy Leech back in 1984 and repeated again by the legendary marathon man from Manly in 1985.

It was a time when the names Leech, Grant Kenny, Craig Riddington, Robert Chapman, Lawrence Reese, Billy Eckstein and later Trevor Hendy, Dwayne Thuys, Guy Andrews, Michael King, Darren and Dean Mercer ruled the waves.

For the open men - it's four-and-a-half hours of pure pain from Surfers Paradise to Coolangatta and return and for the women it is a three-and-half-hour trek from Surfers Paradise to Currumbin and back.

The team at Hanson Media Group led by Ian Hanson and Darren Madigan have tracked down some of the legends of the race, Guy Leech, Darren Mercer, Rhys Drury, Michael King and Hayley Bateup for this special PODCAST preview of the 2009 nib Coolangatta Gold.
LISTEN TO THE HMG RADIO TEAM TALK TO PAST AND PRESENT STARS OF THE ICONIC COOLANGATTA GOLD
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