Greats chasing crowns
DEFENDING ironwoman champion Courtney Hancock has sent a strong warning to her competition as she prepares to snare a fourth crown at the Queensland titles.
“Every time I get to states, I know I’m as fit as I possibly can be and can go hard from start to finish,” she said.
After finishing 10th in the Nutri-Grain Ironwoman Series standings at the end of the Ocean6 series, the 28-year-old was forced to go back to the drawing board.
“I had a frustrating season ... so I got back in the water and set out my goals for what I wanted to achieve in the next few weeks,” she said.
“Last week I absolutely smashed myself in the pool, surf, gym and road so I think it’s going to be an interesting taper and recovery these next few weeks.”
Hancock believes the ironwoman final on Sunday could be one for the ages with a number of athletes lining up to stop her going back-to-back.
“I train with a lot of them at Northcliffe so I see a lot of them every morning and afternoon,” she said.
“It could only be a wave or half a wave, that’s how tight the races are at the moment.”
After supporting junior ath- letes at the youth state championships last weekend, Hancock said that she couldn’t wait to hit the water herself.
“They don’t actually realise that they are inspiring us senior competitors because we were them once and they want to be where we are,” she said.
“Hopefully I’m out of the game by the time they come up because there’s some really good talent coming through and you always hear their little voices cheering you along.”
Ironman great Shannon Eckstein, who is set to retire at the end of this season, agreed that the next generation of surf lifesaving was in good hands.
“I looked up to the likes of Trevor Hendy and even Grant Kenny and tried to emulate them and now I’m here retiring so hopefully the young ones look up to me,” he said.
The 35-year-old is hoping to achieve both individual and club success in his last tilt at the state titles.
“It would be nice (to go out with an ironman win),” Eckstein said.
“I’ve been part of Northcliffe for probably the last 15 years and it’s been pretty special winning a lot of team events and individual events.”
SLSQ sport event coordinator Ryan Bennett tipped Gold Coast powerhouses Northcliffe and Currumbin to vie for the overall title.