Original Coolangatta Gold winner reflects on iconic original race

ORIGINAL Coolangatta Gold winner Guy Leech looks back on the movie that spawned a race — and the race that spawned a professional sport.

AS athletes prepare to tackle the gruelling Coolangatta Gold course tomorrow, Guy Leech looks back on the movie that spawned a race — and the race that spawned a professional sport. The two-time Gold winner shares his memories of the iconic race.

Q THE first Coolangatta Gold in 1984 was an unknown — did you know what you were getting yourself in for?

A All the boys saw posters on surf clubs around Australia, that’s how we first found out about the race. I only saw the poster in Manly Surf Club as an 18-year-old that winter. The talk around the surf club was: ‘who’s in, who’s going to train for this race?’

Q The race was held to coincide with the movie of the same name, was there much hype?

A Just the enormity of the Michael Edgley PR machine was the thing back then that just made it like nothing has ever been since. I did ironman for 11 years professionally after that

race and was in the Uncle Toby’s ironman series during the very peak of fame of myself and Trevor Hendy and Grant Kenny and nothing went close to that day. Nothing. I counted

21 helicopters in the air filming me paddling back on the ski from Coolangatta to Surfers Paradise. They were either overseas media or for the movie but it was like a circus.

1984 Coolangatta Gold winner Guy Leech with his medal and trophy at Coolangatta beach.

Q How did you prepare for the first race? No one had attempted anything like it before.

A I was never a favourite, I was 40-1 to win because I had no ironman background prior to it, I came from a swimming background and was doing it off less than a year’s training in ironman. But for me, what I didn’t know actually helped me.

Q How do you mean it helped you? Were you unaware of the pain to come?

A Because I didn’t know I was a chance of winning I wasn’t nervous; because I didn’t know I could win it, I hadn’t put any undue pressure on myself — so because I was an underdog and wasn’t recognised before the race in any way, anything I did beyond a midfield result would have been seen as being decent. I remember I hit the lead at the 90-minute mark of a four-and-a-half four race and I said to myself, I might not win today but I’m going to bust myself and do everything I can so that if I do get beat, it won’t be because I lay down. I’ll go down swinging. I stayed in front for the next three hours.

Q How deep did you have to dig that first time to become the first Gold champion?

A There were horrific moments of just pain, just that uncomfortableness of the heat. We were racing in January — they wouldn’t run a race like that now with water safety and those things. There was no sports science, you had nothing to draw on.

Q What goes through your head in a race like that when you’re in that pain?

A Holding a pace and feeling uncomfortable, that pain you went through was just part of wanting to win. People that backed off because it was hurting too much, they were the ones that didn’t win. I was good at absorbing pain and dealing with it.

Trevor Hendy, Zane Holmes, Guy Leech, Shannon Eckstein, and Caine Eckstein raced at the peak of the ironman series.

Q The current course goes from Coolangatta north to Broadbeach and back. What’s the best Gold course?

A We did the “big boy course”. It’s not a real Coolangatta Gold unless you cover the coastline. And the sad part of the race is how much it’s changed, unlike something like the Hawaiian Ironman (triathlon), which started before the Coolangatta Gold. They don’t mess the distances, it stays the same and it’s a badge of honour to get through the race.

Q Is that disappointing for a race as iconic as the Coolangatta Gold?

A There are two things that are disappointing for it. One is that it doesn’t have the prizemoney and the backing for the best athletes to train all winter to go and put their best foot forward. And the second thing is that they don’t do the whole course. To win a race that doesn’t have all the best people in it, you can’t take away from the person who wins it and by no means am I saying they don’t deserve to win. But for me, it was always better when I was racing Trevor Hendy and the Mercers and those guys.

A scene from the Coolangatta Gold movie.

Q The Gold is such an iconic race, can you see it staying on the calendar long-term?

A I’ll always do an interview trying to promote the Coolangatta Gold because it’s such an amazing event and race. And the top racers around the ironman series wouldn’t be around if it wasn’t for the race. You’ve got to keep it going because it was what started it all and good athletes that do the sport should pay homage to the thing and get in there and have a go. You’re not really an ironman or ironwoman if you haven’t done the Coolangatta Gold.

Q Had the Nutri-Grain series kicked off at that stage or was it still to come?

A That was the start of it all. One race to do with a movie started a sport that became separate from surf lifesaving. It was a dramatic day with what was presented with the crowd and the whole coastline shutting down but it was a pivotal part of Australia sport in that you had a national professional series borne out of one day, which was unheard of.

Q What was it like to be involved in those days when you were the most popular athletes in the country?

A It was really weird. I grew into the fact that I became very famous and that peaking the early 90s when the Uncle Toby’s Ironman Series started and we were on Channel 10 every second or third Sunday for the whole summer. We were shown to the whole country.

Ironmen (L-R) Grant Kenny, Trevor Hendy & Guy Leech.

Q Can you recall any strange moments from the height of your fame?

A I remember going to a shopping centre appearance with Grant Kenny after Kellogg’s signed me up and I was on the back of the Nutri-Grain pack in about 1986/87. They hired security people for us and I wanted to know why. We turned up and we got mobbed kids and girls and we couldn’t go anywhere without having security. I went from not being famous at all to being on the front page of papers in one day. It was odd.

Q All of a sudden the Cereal Wars came along, what was it like when the rival Nutri-Grain and Uncle Toby’s series were running?

A It was a little sad that we had the run-in with surf lifesaving but it was just a bunch of guys that loved what they did wanting to do more of it. We just felt like we were being held back and we made a decision that we couldn’t stay where we were and there was an opportunity to get the dream world that we wanted and that’s the way we went. It was probably the most dramatic time in surf lifesaving.

Ironman legend Guy Leech jogging at Bondi Beach in Sydney.

Q The perfect storm that created the Cereal Wars won’t happen again will it?

A Two giant cereal companies — one a Goliath, in Kellogg’s, and the younger, smaller version, in Uncle Toby’s, wanted to have a crack. They saw ironman as being so clean cut, so Australian and such a high-profile thing to put their brand behind to dig into the supermarket giants’ shelf space and get some more real estate on the shelves. It came down to selling more product and we could help them to do that.

Q What do you think about the sport as it is now for athletes trying to make a living?

A I was always aware that the scene that we were in was probably not going to last forever. I feel really sorry for the athletes today because there’s a lot of them out there who could do what Trevor Hendy and Grant Kenny and Karla Gilbert and I did if they got given the opportunity but it’s just not going to happen in this environment.