OUR NEW SURF STAR
CLAUDIA Kelly stunned the Gold Coast surf life saving community with an upset win in the Oceans 38 open ironwoman – and she’s hoping to soon make her mark on the world stage.
Kelly (pictured) placed just fifth in the ironwoman race in her under-17 division at Kirra on Saturday but then soon after took on – and beat – athletes years beyond her age.
The 16-year-old is a member of Mermaid Beach Surf Life Saving Club but is actually based in New Zealand, in the North Island region of Taranaki.
Kelly was approached by the club and she said the ensuing association has helped lift her game significantly.
“A year ago I would never have thought that was possible,” she said.
“I have definitely picked up the training and obviously coming to Mermaid and getting the training over here, it is really awesome.
“This is the first time I have really competed in Australia so I didn’t really know who I was up against but I always go into races trying to be confident. I was pretty stoked afterwards.”
Kelly, who will soon return home, has big dreams in the sport.
“I’d really love to represent New Zealand in the Black Fins team at the World Championships,” she said.
She is first hoping to be part of the Junior Black Fins at this year’s event in Adelaide before stepping up to the senior national squad for the 2020 championships in Italy.
In the meantime, she will look to balance Year 12 studies with coming back to Australia to compete in events including the national titles.
Of her under-17 result, Kelly modestly said she had an average race and that her competitors were too good in the moment.
Mermaid Beach operations manager Grant Brown however said she had been facing a tall order from the very start.
“She had a fairly bad starting position on the line and she was a long way back right from the word go,” Brown said.
“There was a lot of conjecture right throughout the whole carnival about the starting positions on the line.
“It is luck of the draw where you are allocated but there was quite a bit of discussion in regards to the people at one end had to travel a lot further than people at the other end. It’s just the shape of the beach and the depth of the water and things like that.”
Kelly noted the addition of a ski leg for the open iron race had helped her. The under-17 race had only featured swim and board legs.
“Ski is one of my better legs so I actually do prefer having the three legs because it is more of an endurance thing,” she said.