BEVI-STATED
Surf lifesaving star reflects on season cut painfully short
APRIL could have been the month that Matt Bevilacqua completed surf lifesaving’s ultimate treble.
Having already won a Nutri-Grain series title in 2018 followed by his maiden Coolangatta Gold win in 2019, the Kurrawa ironman was an Australian ironman title away from achieving his career ambition of winning all three.
Instead, the 28-year-old will have to wait another year for his chance at Australian glory after the Aussie titles were cancelled last month amid coronavirus fears.
“I’ve missed a few Aussies for a variety of reasons now,” Bevilacqua said. “I guess I am approaching the peak of my career now and that doesn’t last forever so you don’t want to lose those opportunities.”
“The Aussies are my favourite event on the calendar and especially being on the Gold Coast, I was looking forward to racing at home and having a wave on but that didn’t eventuate and I’m very disappointed,” Bevilacqua said.
“You can’t avoid these things and you’ve got to do the right thing even though it’s pretty devastating.”
Having won the Shannon Eckstein Ironman Classic in February just a month after finishing second in the 2019-20 Nutri-Grain series, Bevilacqua boasted both the fitness and form to contend with Australia’s best.
“Throughout my career, I’ve always been on an upward curve in regards to my performance and I learned so much this season and raced some great races and some bad ones, all which I learned from so I knew I would race well at Aussies,” he said.
“Now I’ve just got to be patient and enjoy the time off because I basically haven’t had an off-season in five years.”
Bevilacqua will have even longer to prepare for next summer after revealing he would bypass the Molokai to Oahu board race for the first time in years.
The gruelling endurance board race, of which Bevilacqua is a five-time winner, has been cancelled anyway due to COVID-19.
“I well and truly needed a break,” he said. “I decided to do it last year and was very tentative about it but thought I’d do it one last time and it paid off.
“I pre-planned to have a break from it this year but now I probably won’t end up missing one.”