2024/25 Iron Series: Former Ironman champion Matt Poole fails to qualify after coming out of retirement

Former Ironman champion Matt Poole’s stunning Iron Series comeback quest fell short. He opens up on what went wrong and what the future holds.

Matt Poole has won gold at the 2014 World Paddleboard Championships and with team Australia at the ISA Games in Fiji. Picture by Richard Gosling.

Champion ironman Matt Poole’s stunning Shaw and Partners Iron Series comeback quest has fallen short after he gave his return a “red-hot crack”.

Poole finished 21st in the Shaw and Partners Iron Series trials at Tugun over the weekend, missing out on one of the 15 spots up for grabs.

The 2017 Ironman champion had been plotting a shock comeback to the series two years after retiring so his daughter Posy could see him compete.

“It was just hard to manage the small amount of training that I was getting done in amongst the chaos of being a dad and coaching and work,” Poole said.

“My partner Annelyse is now pregnant as well, it was a lot to juggle and a big mountain to climb, I knew it would be. It was a challenge, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.”

After eight weeks of “testing the waters, Poole said he had committed himself to a “dialled in” training block of 12 weeks before the Iron Series trials.

“From when I retired two years ago I haven’t picked up a ski or a board at all, I did my first race at Aussie Masters last year with my dad for a bit of fun and I hadn’t been on a ski or board,” Poole said.

Matt poole and his father Ian.

“Whilst I was still very active and running marathons and keeping fit, I had done zero sport-specific training in two years ... it’s not like any other sport, it’s very demanding on the body.

“I wasn’t out there to try and come back and win races or a series, I wanted to set myself a huge goal and a challenge of making it back into the Ironman series.”

While understandably disappointed to miss the cut, Poole was impressed by just how much the standard of racing had grown during his absence.

“That was very noticeable for me, just how much depth there was in the sport, a lot of really fast kids coming through,” he said.

“Guys like Conner Maggs would’ve been in nappies when I was running around in my first Ironman series, that in itself was quite an eye-opener.

“Once I stepped foot on the line, just seeing that initial speed and pace off the start line in all the races was what was really catching me out.”

Matt Poole and his daughter Posy. Picture by Richard Gosling.

A self-confessed “sicko” for punishment, Poole isn’t sure what’s next for him and didn’t rule out continuing to pursue racing, but he put a definitive line through his Iron Series career.

“The Iron Series is definitely done for me, I’m not sure if I will or won’t do any other racing this year at the moment … the level of racing now is just so fit and fast,” Poole said.

“I’ve had my time in the sun going around the front of the races, this weekend I felt like I was fighting with the pack towards the back-end of races and it wasn’t much fun, it was bloody tough.”

The top 15 male and female competitors from the weekend’s trials joined the 12 pre-qualified competitors and Next Gen winners to round out the Iron Series two 28-participant strong fields this summer.

Burleigh Heads Mowbray Park duo Will Savage and Sean Rielly were among those to secure their Iron Series debuts at Tugun, as did Mitchell Stitt (Surfers Paradise) and Callum Brennan (Currumbin), while Surfers Paradise teammates TJ Hendy and Max Beattie requalified.

Carla Papac was the first female to earn her place in the upcoming Iron Series after moving south to Burleigh Heads Mowbray Park.