Northcliffe’s Harriet Brown beats stars Courtney Hancock, Jordan Mercer to claim Queensland ironwoman crown

HARRIET Brown has won the ironwoman at the state surf lifesaving championships leaving Courtney Hancock and Jordan Mercer in her wake.

Brown beats top field at states

HARRIET Brown is hoping she hasn’t peaked too early.

A month out from the Australian surf lifesaving titles, Brown beat a crack field home to win the ironwoman at the state surf lifesaving championships at North Burleigh, leaving Kellogg’s series champions Courtney Hancock and Jordan Mercer in her wake to complete the podium.

After a full weekend of racing, Brown took an all-or-nothing strategy into the ironwoman and the tactic paid off as she surged ahead in the final swim leg, managing to avoid a sprint finish.

“All of us girls have done so many races over this weekend and going into that iron, we’d just done a board race and surf race final, so we were all pretty tired,’’ Brown said.

“My aim was to try and go out as hard as I could and then see if I had anything left.

“I was lucky to catch a few little waves so I didn’t have to fight for it in a sprint finish because if I did I think I would have had nothing left.’’

Brown will give herself just a day off in reward for the win before heading into a three-week training block in a bid to repeat the effort at the Aussies on the Sunshine Coast next month.

“I just hope I haven’t peaked too soon,’’ joked Brown, who also picked up bronze medals in the board and swim races yesterday.

“Aussies is our main event. State titles is always a great one to have a hitout and see where we’re at and I’m really happy with how I’ve gone this weekend.

“An iron after two days of racing, it’s just like a get through it and use whatever we’ve got.

“It’s a good indicator that I’m feeling fit, so I just hope to carry that through to Aussies and avoid sickness and avoid injury and see if I can get a few hard weeks of training.’’

Hancock had considered bypassing the state titles to continue training for Aussies after arriving home from Africa filming reality television series ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here’ just three weeks ago.

But she said her efforts at the state titles, which also included a narrow loss in the surf race, gave her confidence she would be in the mix at Aussies.

“You obviously want to go out and get that gold medal but for me, it’s been three weeks since I’ve come back from Africa,’’ Hancock said.

“It was questionable whether I was going to do it.

“I’ve still got more to come, I’ve still got to pick up another level, but I actually felt comfortable out there, I didn’t feel tired, I felt really strong. So for me it was a good weekend.’’