MATT COULD WALK OVER PRIZE POOLE

LEADING ironman Matt Poole is uncertain if the upcoming NutriGrain series will be his last as he weighs up the workload on athletes with the prizemoney incentives on offer.

The 2020-21 series will be Poole’s 14th and at 32 one of the competition’s premier athletes believes he will come to a crossroad at the completion of the season.

There is an extra round of what will be a six-round series this season and Surf Life Saving Australia, which owns the competition, has secured a new broadcast deal with Channel 9 that will put the sport on freeto-air television again.

But prizemoney has failed to lift beyond the $200,000 on offer between both men and women.

It means athletes have been required to rely on revenue from the likes of the Summer of Surf Series, which includes the $130,000 Shannon Eckstein Classic.

Another one-off event helping keep athletes afloat is the The Unbreakable at Alexandra Headland.

Poole said it was debatable whether the Nutri-Grain series was still the premier surf ironman and ironwoman series and he was not “100 per cent sure” if he would return for another go in 2021-22.

“If there aren’t any improvements in prizemoney or any incentive in running around I doubt I’d come back for another year,” Poole said.

“This could be the final season. I haven’t made a decision on that.

“It comes down to the sport. It has got to make a lot of improvements and make it worthwhile for athletes to turn up and showcase what we do as athletes.

“Our sport is very far from professional. The athletes train as professionals but we aren’t rewarded like it.”

Poole said everyone in the sport was hoping the broadcast deal with Channel 9 helped bring in a new wave of sponsors and breath life into ironman and ironwoman racing.

“With the amount of training we put in for our sport, we are extremely underpaid,” the Northcliffe star said.

“It’s reflected in the amount of ironmen and women who have retired or disappeared at a far younger age than they should.”