Our Matt’s cool gold

MATT Bevilacqua has secured his maiden Coolangatta Gold ironman title. The Tasmanian felt “dead” on the penultimate surf leg as teammate Matt Poole passed him, but Bevilacqua dug deep on the final run to storm to a huge victory.

A BARNSTORMING finish from Matt Bevilacqua has secured the Tasmanian his maiden Coolangatta Gold title. Bevilacqua felt “dead” on the penultimate surf leg as Kurrawa Surf Life Saving Club teammate Matt Poole passed him, only to dig deep on the final run to storm to victory.

A DEVASTATING final run leg has secured Tasmanian Matt Bevilacqua his first Coolangatta Gold title.

Bevilacqua broke Kurrawa Surf Life Saving Club teammate Matt Poole in the run for home to take out the 41.8km ironman race on the Gold Coast yesterday. Bevilacqua finished the event in 4hrs 6min 19sec, with Poole 36sec back.

Mermaid Beach’s James Lacy came home third.

Poole had snatched the lead on the penultimate surf leg, but a friendly moment between the two rivals gave Bevilacqua the inspiration needed to out-run the veteran to the finish line.

“It was a bit of a script, me and Pooly just side-by-side with 2km to go,” Bevilacqua said. “We have trained together for the last eight years, side-by-side three times a day and I was kind of pinching myself just kind of looking at him going, ‘you are kidding aren’t you?’ He gave me a friendly bum pat on the way through on the board. He came flying past me, it was encouraging. I was dead at that point. I thought it was all over, but I put the shoes on, got rid of my arms, I didn’t have to use them any more and switched muscle groups and everything changes.”

In the women’s race, a decision to ditch her shoes on the final run leg proved a winning call for Noosa’s Lana Rogers. The 23-year-old was one of five women including defending champion Georgia Miller, three-time winner Courtney Hancock, Jemma Smith and Danielle McKenzie in the hunt coming off the penultimate surf leg.

Having removed her shoes, Rogers passed Smith in the final 100m sprint on the Coolangatta beach sand to claim the title.