Coolangatta Gold: Iron champs Day, Bevilacqua, Rogers divided as iconic race cut in half

The Coolangatta Gold, surf lifesaving’s most iconic endurance race, will undergo its most dramatic transformation yet in 2025, leaving past winners divided: Is this race still the Cooly Gold?

Coolangatta Gold winners Matt Bevilacqua, Ali Day and Lana Rogers react to shortening of iconic race in 2025.

More than 40 years of Coolangatta Gold tradition will be swept aside in October as the most famous race in surf lifesaving is slashed almost in half.

The ultra-endurance race born from a 1984 movie script could this year be won in the time it takes for credits to roll on the original 112-minute Coolangatta Gold film.

The 41.8km long course has been given a bittersweet facelift in a bid to attract greater participation in the sport’s ultimate race.

In the four decades since the film’s fictional race was brought to life along the Gold Coast, athletes have raced 23km on the surf ski, swum 3.5km, boarded 6.1km and run 9.2km.

In 2025 those figures will be reduced to:

● 14km ski (39 per cent decrease)

● 2km swim (43 per cent decrease)

● 4km board (34 per cent decrease)

● 5km run (46 per cent decrease)

Organisers estimate the entire race will be concluded within 2.5 hours.

Past winners battled to return to the Coolangatta Beach finish line inside four hours.

Defending champion and nine-time winner Ali Day had mixed feelings: “It’s sad in a way but also exciting for the sport as well,” he said.

“It’s a great new challenge and it’s now part of the series.”

Ali Day and Jemma Smith win 2024 Coolangatta Gold

Matt Bevilacqua, the 2019 champion who has finished second to Day in three straight Golds, questioned whether the change in distance constituted a whole new race.

“It will be awesome to watch,” Bevilacqua said.

“Is it the Coolangatta Gold or does it need a new name? I’m not sure.

“I’m looking forward to it, especially because it is part of the series.

“It will be an awesome spectacle.”

Surf Life Saving Australia chief executive Adam Weir said he hoped the reduction would enable more racers to compete in the iconic event.

“In 2024 we celebrated 40 years of the iconic race, and the changes we’re making in 2025 are designed to reinvigorate the traditional race and provide more opportunities for more people to race,” he said.

Matt Bevilacqua in action during the ski leg of the 2019 Coolangatta Gold. Picture: Harvpix

Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate praised the reduction in distance.

“Every signature sporting event needs to constantly reinvent itself and the team behind the Coolangatta Gold has certainly done that this year,” he said.

“I’m thrilled the new format will give spectators better access to the racing and will draw in competitors from the national iron series.”

Veteran Burleigh Mowbray Park coach Michael King said Earl Evans, chief executive of naming rights partner Shaw and Partners, had earned the sport’s backing for his financial contribution and would not complain.

Shaw and Partners will pump more than $2 million into the sport over the next three years after signing a new sponsorship agreement.

“Without his sponsorship and love for the sport I don’t know where we would be right now,” King said.

Coolangatta Gold 2023 winner Lana Rogers holds the trophy to claim her second title. Picture: Supplied

“Whatever he puts on I’ll support 100 per cent. I’m a massive supporter of it. All our athletes (at Burleigh Mowbray Park) will be doing it. I have no issues with it.

“The Gold holds a special place in my heart but time moves on and we can’t look in the rear vision mirror,” he added.

Northcliffe’s two-time champion Lana Rogers welcomed the drop in distance, revealing the reduction had “put a bit of fire in the blly” for the October 19 race.

““I was pretty excited about the changes,” Rogers said.

“It gives the most legendary race in our sport a bit of a new edge.

“A few years ago during Covid they weren’t able to put on the Gold so they had a Queensland version of it called ‘unbreakable’ at Alexandra Headland which was a similar course.

“It was a lot faster in pace. I wasn’t planning on doing the Gold this year so it’s given me a new task to complete and put a bit of fire in the belly.”

Originally published as Coolangatta Gold: Iron champs Day, Bevilacqua, Rogers divided as iconic race cut in half