NO PLACE LIKE HOME
Brown pounces in Surf Coast stunner
HOMEGROWN hero Harriet Brown halted the teenage domination in the Nutri-Grain Series with a thrilling victory in local waters yesterday.
Empowered with inspiration from ironwoman great Naomi Flood, the Geelong export secured her maiden series event win for the summer and retained her overall series lead after a dramatic finish to the national ironwoman contest at Fairhaven.
Brown, 27, trailed in second position throughout the final leg of the ski discipline, before leader Lizzie Welborn, 19, tipped her ski in rough conditions, allowing the world ironwoman champion to storm home.
“It feels awesome. It’s been my aim for a while, to win a round of the Nutri-Grain Series, and to do it on home soil down in Victoria is pretty special,” said Brown, who is now based in Queensland.
“It’s great to do well at an event but to do it here in Victoria (is special).
I’m coaching the kids at Mornington Surf Club and they’re all here watching, and my family and friends from school are here and my old club Ocean Grove is here to cheer me on, so it’s pretty cool.”
Brown, who a day earlier finished second in the Lorne Pier to Pub, entered the event as the Nutri-Grain Series leader, despite having not won in the first three rounds of the series.
But Brown said she put the lead- erboard to the back of her mind, as she excelled in all three disciplines to score the win.
“My aim today with the big surf was to think not too much about the results,” she said. “I was more just trying to focus on the process to get out through the surf each time, otherwise you can get ahead of yourself.
“My coach, Naomi Flood, she just told me to keep pushing no matter where I am and no matter where I’m coming, and it worked.”
“I was in second and I thought, ‘I’m happy coming second’, and then that’s what surf is. I think Lizzy made a little mistake at the end and it could have been any one of us, and I was lucky enough to hold the wave and come through.”
Jordan Mercer also made up ground to claim second, just ahead of Welborn in third spot.
Prior to Brown’s win, schoolgirl Jemma Smith won round one of the series at Queenscliff Beach in Sydney, with Brielle Cooper, 19, winning the second and third legs of the six-event series at Coolum Beach and North Wollongong Beach. They finished 11th and 12th respectively yesterday.
The series moves to Surfers Paradise Beach early next month and finishes at North Cronulla Beach on February 25.
The win follows up Brown’s second placing at Saturday’s Pier to Pub — an event she has won six times.
“I was the only one from the series today to do the Pier to Pub,” she said.
“I had second thoughts about it yesterday but it’s something that I absolutely love to do and it’s a race I get to enjoy with my family and my friends, so I wasn’t going to miss it. I pulled up a little sore this morning but it didn’t affect me too much.
“I love that event and I think I really enjoyed yesterday. Sometimes doing what you enjoy is so much better than focusing so hard on a race to make it perfect.”