Ironmen and ironwomen to descend on Bondi

Australia’s top ironmen and ironwomen will descend on Bondi Beach on Friday, December 3 for the second races of the Nutri-Grain Ironman series.

The arduous ironman and ironwoman events are a combination of the four main disciplines of surf lifesaving — board paddling, ski paddling, swimming and running.

Queenslanders Shannon Eckstein (Northcliffe), Hugh Dougherty (Tugan), Ky Hurst (Kurrawa), Rhys Drury (Dicky Beach, North Caloundra) and Corey Jones (Metropolitan Caloundra), along with Ali Day (Warilla-Barrack Point, NSW), pre-qualified for the men’s event and will be joined in the field of 20 ironmen by another eight who qualified from trials and six wildcard entries.

The ironwomen field will be Queenslanders Alicia Marriott (Mooloolaba), the Northcliffe trio of Elizabeth Pluimers, Kristyl Smith and Courtney Hancock, who are pre-qualified, plus another 10 who qualified from trials and six wildcard entries.

Eckstein and Marriott are the defending champions from last season’s series. The ironwoman event will start at 2.45 pm, followed by the ironman event at 4.45 pm.

Tara Coleman (Maroubra), the daughter of former South Sydney rugby league halfback Craig Coleman, qualified for the series from trials. However, Candice Falzon, who has transferred this season to the Bondi club after previously representing Maroubra and North Bondi, is not among the ironwomen.

The first race of the series, for more than $300,000 in prize money, will be staged at Currumbin on the Gold Coast on November 21 and the remaining races will be at Coolum on the Queensland Sunshine Coast on December 19, Portsea, Victoria, on January 2 and Noosa on the Sunshine Coast on January 9.

Channel 10 will provide more than 40 hours of coverage of the event. See program guides for more information.