News
New Zealand Athletes qualify for Australian Iron Series
Monday, 7 December 2020Press Release
Dec 9, 2020
Fitzroy SLSC’s Joe Collins & Midway SLSC’s Olivia Corrin have qualified to be a part of the 2020/21 Australian Iron Series.
The Australian Iron Series is the pinnacle of Surf Life Saving Australia’s elite sports programme, featuring 40 of the fittest and fastest lifeguards from Australia & New Zealand battling it out over 6 rounds of different swim/board/ski iron races.
Joe and Olivia join fellow NZ High Performance Squad members, Danielle McKenzie (Mairangi Bay SLSC) & Cory Taylor (Midway SLSC), who had already qualified based on their performances last summer.
The qualification event was held on the 28th and 29th of November at Kingscliff Beach, NSW, with nearly 100 athletes competing in six grueling iron races in an effort to secure one if the eight qualifying spots on offer for males & females.
The successful 8 join the top 10 from the 2019/20 series as part of the 2020/21 Australian Iron Series.
Joe, who was co-captain of the Black Fins at the 2019 International Surf Rescue Challenge in Durban, who prepared for the event under the guidance of fellow Kiwi, Kevin Morrison at BMD Northcliffe in Queensland, went into the weekend confident.
“I was feeling the strongest and fittest I have ever been and had the mentality of improving myself through the experience of top end racing, but this changed after the first race, which I won, giving myself belief I could compete with the top level competition.”
While Olivia had already experienced a few of the legs of the 2019/20 series.
“I was feeling super nervous before racing on Saturday and then after making it through to the top 20 final on Sunday, those nerves escalated quite a lot,” she said.
However, she need not have worried about securing her spot in the top 8 females.
“My best moment was definitely the last race on Sunday, as it was a really strong race and I felt confident knowing I could back up and still feel good after the 3 races”.
Australian Iron Series:
- Round 1 & 2 - 19-20 December 2020, Kingscliff, NSW
- Round 3 & 4 –16-17 January 2021, North Cronulla, NSW
- Round 5 & 6 – 13-14 February 2021, Kurrawa, QLD