Kiwis line up in iconic Coolangatta Gold
Friday 5 November 2010, 4:53PM
By Surf Life Saving New Zealand
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Chris Moors will lead the New Zealand charge in Sunday’s iconic Coolangatta Gold surf lifesaving race on the Gold Coast.
Red Beach’s Moors had been doing heavy endurance training with Tauranga’s Mike Janes throughout the Queensland winter, but Janes has pulled out of the gruelling 46km race to focus on the start of the Kellogg’s Nutrigrain ironman series a week later.
Moors and Janes both made the finals day of the highly competitive Kellogg’s trials – Janes got through on a wildcard – but 26-year-old Moors said it had been a great boost.
“Racing in competitions over here like the Kellogg’s trials has definitely helped with confidence,” Moors said. “There are a select few athletes that are a class above but I am happy I can remain competitive and hopefully I can use the training base to give the summer surf season back in New Zealand a good crack.”
The Coolangatta Gold features a 23km surf ski leg from Surfers Paradise to Greenmount, before a return journey north that includes a 3.5km surf swim, a 5.5km board paddle and 15km of soft-sand beach runs back to Surfers Paradise.
Other New Zealanders competing include Thames-born Mark Stephenson, Taranaki’s Dan Nelson, Nick Malcolm (Mairangi Bay) and former national representative Nathan Henderson, who is based on the Gold Coast. Gisborne’s Ollie Puddick will compete in the under-19 race.
Stephenson, 26, has a ski racing and multisport background but only set his sights on the Coolangatta Gold – made famous by the 1984 movie of the same name – when he moved from Auckland to Sydney last year.
He’s struggled to fit in enough training but is confident he can last the distance.
“The hardest part from my perspective will be the board paddle – lots of people say that the last run is a killer but I am pretty happy that provided I keep on top of the food and drink I should be OK,” Stephenson said.
Moors is using the event to build up for a huge Kiwi summer schedule, which includes the International Surf Challenge in Mount Maunganui in January, with trials for the New Zealand team next month.
“At the moment I am struggling with any sort of real explosive pace needed for the shorter events with such a massive aerobic training load,” Moors said. “But that should come with the change in training after the Gold.”
Sunday’s race will be the tenth time in 26 years it has been run, with 211 individuals and 82 teams gathering on the Kurrawa shoreline.
Defending champions Caine Eckstein and Alicia Marriott are chasing their own slice of Coolangatta Gold history, with Eckstein looking for his fourth Gold title and Marriott her third.