Shannon Eckstein says pressure is on his rivals ahead of Australian ironman final

SHANNON Eckstein says the pressure is on the rest of the field heading into this weekend’s Australian ironman final, with the man regarded as the greatest of all time undeterred if he does not add to his eight titles.

SHANNON Eckstein says the pressure is on the rest of the field heading into this weekend’s Australian ironman final, with the man regarded as the greatest of all time undeterred if he does not add to his eight titles.

With the Aussies cancelled midway through last year’s carnival on the Gold Coast in the wake of Cyclone Debbie, the ironman title sits vacant.

Eckstein was the last man to win, with the eighth of his victories coming at Maroochydore, on the Sunshine Coast, in 2016.

But the 34-year-old is up against a hungry pack desperate to add an Australian title to their honour list.

Ali Day, Matt Bevilacqua and Matt Poole have all won a Kellogg’s ironman series in the past three years but the Australian title still eludes them.

Open racing started at the Aussies in Perth yesterday, with the trio determined to book a place in Sunday’s ironman final in a bid to add their names to the record books.

But they will have to overcome Eckstein, who started his eight-event program yesterday back to full fitness after overcoming an ankle injury he picked up during the Nutri-Grain series.

“Pretty much the pinnacle of the sport as an ironman is to win the Australian title,” Eckstein said.

“The Kellogg’s series comes and goes and there’s another professional series that has been there before and the Gold has come and gone and now it’s been back for a few years.

“But the one thing that’s always been there and has the big tradition is the Aussie ironman title.

“It’s a big one to win and I’ve won eight of them and they’re all really special in their own right.

“It’d be nice to get another one.”

Bevilacqua won a maiden series title this season, just pipping Day, who claimed a fifth Coolangatta Gold last October.

Caine Eckstein catches a wave during the ironman heats at Scarborough. Photo: harvpix.com

Poole beat Eckstein to win his first series last year but he, Day and Bevilacqua are still looking for an elusive Aussies crown.

“They’ve had very good years and my year hasn’t been great,” Eckstein said.

“I got second in the Gold and won a round of the series, so it’s been OK but by my standards it’s been a pretty poor year.

“But if you win the Australian ironman title, it turns a pretty average year into a really good year.

“So that’s been the focus the last six weeks, to win the title here.

“Those other guys have been racing really well the last two years but this one’s the big one.

“You’ve got the biggest crowd we have in our sport gets down to this final, so there’s a lot of pressure on you and it’s only a really short race, so you’ve got to get everything right.”

With his ankle now healed, Eckstein headed to Perth at full fitness and would love to add to the titles he won in the west in 2008 and 2014.

“Training has been pretty good the last month,” he said.

“My ankle has been the one thing that’s hindered me throughout the season and that’s been a lot better and I’ve been able to get a lot more training done, so I think I’m in better form than I have been throughout the season so I’m looking forward to racing.”

Eckstein was first across the line in his heat of the ironman championship yesterday, with his brother Caine just behind.

Both looked sharp and were untroubled at the head of the field, raising hopes of another 1-2 finish when the final is raced on Sunday afternoon.

“It suits us pretty well,” Caine said of the small but tricky surf.

“It’s nice grindy races and we’ve done a lot of this sort of stuff in the river back home since we were pretty much 16 so we know how to do it.

“We’ve just got to get there on finals day and do it.”

The result put the Northcliffe pair safely into the next round of the blue riband event, where they have been joined by most of the leading Ironman contenders, including Nutri-Grain series winner Matt Bevilacqua (Kurrawa), Queensland champion Ali Day (Surfers Paradise) and NSW title winner Daniel Collins (Redhead).

Other heat winners were Hayden White (Currumbin), Max Brooks (Newport), Kendrick Louis (Manly) and Matt Poole (Kurrawa).

UPSETS IN IRONWOMAN

The ironwoman heats saw the biggest casualty of the first round when Northcliffe’s Danielle McKenzie finished well back missed out a place in the semi-finals.

As a strong ski paddler, McKenzie should have been suited by the ski-swim-board order of the race but fell well behind in the swim and was unable to finish in the top eight.

Otherwise, the big names rose to the top in the four heats, with Noosa Heads clubmates Jordan Mercer and Lana Rogers, Harriet Brown (Northcliffe) and Rebecca Creedy (Kurrawa) the winners, and the likes of Georgia Miller (Newport), Courtney Hancock (Northcliffe), Jemma Smith (Umina) and Lizzie Welborn (North Bondi) also qualifying.

Welborn had a few anxious moments after being hit hard by a wave at the start of the ski leg but eventually worked her way into a qualifying position.