FLOOD FACES CAREER CHOICE
IRONWOMAN TO CHANGE FOCUS
IRONWOMAN veteran Naomi Flood may have donned the cap for her beloved Manly Surf Life Saving Club for the last time.
In a career that has spanned more than a decade, Flood has multiple Australian ski titles to her name as well as a 2009 Nutri-Grain Ironwoman championship and both world and Australian ironwoman titles.
But it’s unlikely the Olympian will ever stray too far away from the sport. After assisting water coach Greg Hall at Kurrawa Surf Life Saving Club last year, Flood this week confirmed her official appointment as ski coach at the Broadbeach based club for 2015.
With the elite paddler preparing for canoeing’s ICF Sprint World Championships in Milan this August, Flood said the role with Kurrawa was likely to be consultancy based.
But the 29-year-old said since moving to the Gold Coast from Sydney in recent years, she had missed coaching the next generation of surf life saving stars and was eager to get to work with Kurrawa’s crop of youngsters.
“I did a fair bit of work in Sydney with Manly … I really enjoy it and it is something that I have missed since moving to the Gold Coast a couple of years ago,” she said.
“I haven’t had that involvement with my surf club or a surf club like I did in Sydney. I did a little bit of work with the guys towards the end of last season and really enjoyed it.”
Flood says she loves coaching and believes assisting young athletes could be a large part of her future in the sport.
“It just seemed to be a good fit. I’ve known Greg for a while,” she said. Flood admitted April’s Aussies campaign would likely be her last and that kayaks would be her focus for the next year and a half.
“It could be the start of a transition but we’ve got a really big kayak season ahead over the next couple of months.”
Yet, the Tugun-based canoer said she had committed to very little beyond the 2016 Olympics which will be her focus after the world championships in less than three months’ time.
“At the moment I’m paddling in the K4 and the K2 so priority for the Australian women this year is to qualify the K4,” she said.
Kurrawa surf coach Hall said his charges had benefited from Flood’s presence at the club and he was excited to have the former ironwoman as part of the coaching staff officially for this season.