MARRIOTT AND DOUGHERTY CHASING AUSSIES GOLD
March 15: The lure of a ‘perfect' season will be driving Alicia Marriott as she chases the Ironwoman title at this week's 2010 Whereis Australian Surf Life Saving Championships at Kurrawa Beach.
When she won last month's Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Series, Marriott became the first female competitor to win the triple crown of the Australian Ironwoman championship, the Coolangatta Gold and the KNG series.
Now she is trying to go a step better by winning all three in the same surf season.
The 24-year-old, who has thrived since moving from Perth to Mooloolaba almost a year ago, claimed ser second Coolangatta Gold title last October, beating three-time champion Hayley Bateup in the process.
A fourth-place finish in the final round of the KNG series was enough to secure her first title and now she is looking to the Australian championships to cap off an unprecedented season.
"If I could take out the Ironwoman at the Aussies that would make it perfect," Marriott said.
"Moving over here and being part of the Michael King Ironman Academy has been awesome, it's given me a bit of fire back for the sport."
"It's exciting to have the Aussies back at Kurrawa, I have always enjoyed racing there and I can't wait to get to the Gold Coast for this year's Championships.
"My sister and a lot of my friends from City of Perth and WA will be over and it will be great to catch up with them all."
It was back home in Western Australia that Marriott enjoyed her greatest surf lifesaving thrill when she won the Australian Ironwoman title in 2008.
Cheered on by a parochial home crowd, she raced away from Bateup to cruise to the gold medal and become a hero in Perth.
Bateup (Kurrawa), who has won 18 Australian championship gold medals in her career, will once again be one of Marriott's leading challengers, as will Northcliffe trio Kristyl Smith - the defending Australian Ironwoman champion, Elizabeth Pluimers - winner of the KNG series final, and Courtney Hancock - who won her second Queensland Ironwoman title last week.
Manly's six-time NSW champion Naomi Flood, who won the Australian Ironwoman title the last time it was held at Kurrawa in 2006, will also be hard to beat.
While competition among the women has been wide open all season, the Ironman championship at Kurrawa has become a much more even affair in recent weeks.
Defending champion Pierce Leonard has withdrawn with a back problem, as has 2004 champion Zane Holmes.
Injury has also struck three-time winner Shannon Eckstein, who was a strong favourite after claiming his fifth KNG series title in domination fashion.
Eckstein (Northcliffe) was hit in the hip by his board while training recently and admits he is in a race against time to be fit for the start of the Ironman competition on Friday.
With two former winners absent and another under an injury cloud, the race for the medals is now up for grabs.
Among the challengers to Eckstein are four-time champion and Olympic swimmer Ky Hurst (Kurrawa), Queensland champion 
Corey Jones (Metropolitan Caloundra), NSW champion Ali Day (Warilla-Barrack Point) and Tugun's super-consistent High Dougherty, who had his best ever KNG series this year.
Dougherty placed second behind Eckstein in four of the five races and in the overall point score.
He is hoping to carry that form into the Australian championships.
"Realistically now, I think I'm a chance of winning a medal in the Ironman at Aussies and that's what I'm aiming for," Dougherty said.
"I don't know if I'd have thought that before the KNG series but the way it has worked out I'm really looking forward to the Aussies now."
Dougherty has extra responsibilities this week as the coach of the Tugun squad but that has not hampered him at all this season - it may have even helped.
"This year I've been doing less training than in previous years," he said.
"Along with the coaching I've been doing my plumbing apprenticeship and I don't know but that might just be the right sort of balance.
"I've had previous years where I've had a second or a third in the KNG series but also a 10th or 12th and that sort of thing.
"This year every race I felt really comfortable going into it and finished up there in all five of the rounds."
The 2010 Whereis Australian Surf Life Saving Championships start at Kurrawa tomorrow with the Masters competition for competitors 30 years of age and over, while the Open carnival starts on Thursday and runs until Sunday.