The day Ali became ironman’s top dog

It was January 4, 2015 and Ali Day was set to officially take surf lifesaving’s top mantle.

It was January 4, 2015 and Ali Day was set to officially take surf lifesaving’s top mantle.

Read about it in this week’s Blast From The Past.

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FRESHLY crowned ironman series champion Ali Day cried as he called out the who’s who list of idols who sparked his passion for surf lifesaving.

Zane Holmes, Ky Hurst, Wes Burg and Caine Eckstein were there, as was Shannon Eckstein – the multi Nutri-Grain series winner he dethroned at Newcastle.

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Such is the humility of the rising surf star he placed as much distance as he could between him and that gang of champions.

“I’ve got to pay credit to Shannon, his brother Zane, Ky and Wes, who made me want to do this sport,” Day said.

“I don’t think I deserve to be with those names.”

The 24-year-old, who sat out 2014 with illness, is on track to join some of those greats of the sport.

Already he has won two Coolangatta Gold crowns, and he stared down Eckstein in the series finale.

Ali Day winning the 2015 Coolangatta Gold. Pic by Luke Marsden.

The pair, aged seven years apart, went head-to-head in the decider and caught the same wave towards the beach in a fitting climax to the six-race series.

Eckstein’s speed on the sand earned him the race win but Day gained enough competition points by finishing second to seal the title.

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“Five years ago I started this dream and was grateful enough to be on the beach and have my name on the back of my swimmers,” Day said. “If I’m half the person, half the athlete he is, at the end of the day I’ll be happy. He’s the reason I want to do well at it.”

Eckstein paid the ultimate price for a blowout eighth in the first race of the season.

He did not finish out of the placings after that but could not shake his younger rival from the Mooloolaba club.

Eckstein will regroup for a shot at his seventh Australian title on the Gold Coast in April and promised to return later in the year for another ironman series. He also lauded the character of the man who usurped him.

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“Good things happen to good people and he’s a good person,” Eckstein said.

“He’s kind-hearted and it’s good to see him win.”

It was a great day for another young lion of the sport, Matt Bevilacqua, who finished third in Newcastle in his first visit to the series podium.

Day’s coach Michael King crushed his young charge in a post-race bear hug, 20 years after he won his series title. The Mooloolaba-based coach can add Day to his list of national, Nutri-Grain or Coolangatta Gold champions that includes Josh Minogue, Rhys Drury and Alicia Marriott.