Jade Slee only found out she would be competing in the Coolangatta Gold last week

Most athletes have been training for 20 weeks to prepare to take on the Coolangatta Gold but Jade Slee has only been training for one.

MOST athletes have been training for 20 weeks to prepare to take on the Coolangatta Gold but Jade Slee has only been training for one.

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The 19-year-old only found out last week that there was a place on offer in the elite women’s field and jumped at the opportunity to take on surf lifesaving’s most iconic race.

Coolangatta Gold Festival launch, Jade Slee Australian U19 Ironwoman Champion. Pic. Tim Marsden

“I wasn’t doing the Coolangatta Gold because I thought I couldn’t I possibly do that with the amount of training,” she said.

“My coach asked me if I wanted to be part of the first round of the Nutri-Grain series and I couldn’t say no.

“It’s one step closer to my future goal.”

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The Mermaid Beach rising star just fell short of qualifying for the 2019/20 Nutri-Grain series last month at the series trial but will now get to mix it with the best of the best come Sunday.

“It was completely on the spot,” she said.

“I thought ‘do I really want to do this as my sport,’ and it was a yes.”

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While this will be Slee’s first attempt at the 46km torture test, the under-19 Australian ironwoman champion has form in long course racing.

Earlier this year the star swimmer won bronze in the U19 10km race at the Australian open water championships and she also recently took out second in the open female 2km surf swim at the 2019 Queensland endurance championships.

Coolangatta Gold launch. Jade Slee Australian U19 Ironwoman Champion Pic Tim Marsden

“I haven’t really changed much (at training) because I didn’t want to do much too soon to the race to avoid injuries,” she said.

“It’s a different sort of pain to swimming for sure but hopefully my mental state can get me over the line.”

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Slee has already begun to collect advice ahead of her Gold debut, including from older brother Hayden who tackled the course a few years ago.

“I got a few tips off him (Hayden) and I’m hoping to beat his time but I’ve gotten a few tips off Georgia (Miller) and Matt (Bevilacqua) as well,” she said.

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