Race head plans to put heat on brother

Glen Currie won’t rule out using his big brother status to persuade brother Braden to return to next year’s Coast to Coast.

The event’s new race director, who is replacing Richard Ussher after four years at the helm, won’t start seriously planning for next year’s race until he’s finished debriefing last week’s, but he’s already got an idea to convince his brother to compete in the elite men’s field.

‘‘I suppose I’ll threaten Braden with a dead arm or something if he doesn’t turn up,’’ Currie said.

The three-time winner of the

243km race across the South Island didn’t compete last week due his ironman focus, starving the event of a rematch between Braden and Sam Clark, who won his third title on the bounce last Saturday.

While the women’s field was stacked, Clark romped to his win, before hinting he might flag next year’s race to pursue other challenges.

Should both three-time winners be absent next year, the elite men’s field will both be down on firepower and be wide open.

‘‘We’d probably think it’s a shame, but I think there would be a lot of blokes out there who would think it’d be great if they weren’t there, to be honest,’’ Currie said.

‘‘It would be great to see Braden there. To be honest, there’s a lot of blokes in New Zealand I’d love to see turn up. We had a really special women’s field this year, but I think there’s a lot of guys out there who would be really competitive and, if we can get them all on the start line, we could have a really similar men’s race.’’

While Currie, who competed in three longest day races, including

2014 (third place), will spend some of his time attempting to secure a strong field, including attracting more quality athletes from overseas, it’s only part of his to-do list.

The Methven-based 35-year-old also plans to start contract negotiations with major sponsor Kathmandu, whose current threeyear deal expires after the 2019 event.

Taking another look at prize money allocation is also on Currie’s agenda, something Ussher last year told The Press he wanted to address when it was financially viable.

Both the men’s and women’s one-day winner pocket $10,000, but second and third-placed competitors received less than half that and struggled to cover costs.

‘‘Richard has just about got it to that situation now where we can look at increasing prize money. It’s definitely something I’d love to achieve,’’ Currie said.