Top five finish or wave goodbye to series chances

FINISH in the top five in today’s endurance event or you can say goodbye to your Nutri-Grain series chances.

That’s the view of ninetime champ Shannon Eckstein and Summer of Surf series winner Kendrick Louis, one of the few athletes who could come through to put pressure on the man chasing his 10th Nutri-Grain title.

The reduced three-day series kicks off at North Cronulla today with a 45-minute endurance race and the big fish believe most in the field of 20 will be out of contention for the title by the end of the day.

As reported in the Bulletin last week, Louis, who now has a carpentry qualification behind him and is following his passion in the hospitality industry, believes having outside interests has released the pressure heading into the finals.

The Manly competitor is expected to be among the leaders by the end of today though, along with Matt Bevilacqua, the Kurrawa-based Tasmanian product who finished third in last year’s series after a breakout season.

Bevilacqua is refusing to load himself with expectation, despite his outstanding efforts last season, where he was the only man bar Eckstein to win a Nutri-Grain race.

“I come in with no expectations, I have my processes to go through on race day and I try not to focus on results,” Bevilacqua said.

“And that’s normally when the best results come.”