Shannon Eckstein wins ironman fourth round in Newcastle to all but secure record ninth series

SHANNON Eckstein has dedicated his Nutri-Grain ironman win to newborn son Blake as the greatest ironman of all time all but wrapped up a record ninth series at Newcastle.

Series leader Shannon Eckstein wins round 4 of the Australian Nutri-Grain Ironman Series at Newcastle Beach. Picture by Peter Lorimer.

SHANNON Eckstein has dedicated his Nutri-Grain ironman win to newborn son Blake as the greatest ironman of all time all but wrapped up a record ninth series at Newcastle.

Eckstein put his thumb in his mouth and held up two fingers while running up the chute to the finish line in a tribute to second child Blake, who was born just nine days ago.

It’s similar to the gesture he made when winning the Australian ironman title at Kirra just weeks after the birth of daughter Ellie three years ago.

“It’s been done before but I couldn’t come up with anything else,’’ Eckstein said.

“Yeah, I’m proud. It’s unfortunate they’re not here.’’

Ellie has been a talisman for Eckstein and was carried across the finish line in her father’s arms when he won the second race of the series at Coolum.

It seemed Eckstein was missing his lucky charm on Saturday when he finished second behind Matt Bevilacqua in the round three pursuit final.

But he bounced back on Sunday, pushing over a runner during the final board leg of the 45-minute enduro race to break away from Matt Poole and seal his third win of the series.

Eckstein let out a roar as he crossed, his win all but sealing a ninth series after Kurrawa’s Matt Bevilacqua finished in ninth place to trail the series leader by 15 points going into the final two rounds next month in Sydney.

Bevilacqua closed within three points of Eckstein after winning Saturday’s pursuit final but the man known as “the Professor’’ used all his surf skills in a challenging break to seal a 30th career win.

“It was probably a combination of a lot of things,’’ Eckstein said of the rare show of emotion.

“Losing yesterday, I raced really well and I hate losing like most athletes, especially when I felt like I did everything right and just didn’t get a little piece of luck when I needed it.

“You regroup overnight. The M-shape format has not been my favourite over the years but there was a little bump there, a couple of runners.’’

The break kept the rest of the field in the hunt for much of the race and it was not until the final swim leg when a pack of four — Eckstein, Poole, Kendrick Louis and Nathan Smith — broke away from the rest.

Eckstein and Poole made it a race in two by the board and Eckstein stayed true to his gut in the run home, following the same path he had in Saturday’s race despite Bevilacqua having found the winning wave on the course Poole took to the beach yesterday.

“I’ve played the safe odds my whole career, I’ve always gone to the point I think works the most, I’ve never gone away from the favourite option,’’ Eckstein said.

“It paid off (on Sunday) but (Saturday) it didn’t. But if you keep going back to that, you’re going to win most of the time.

“Over the years you learn.

“And growing up, Trevor (Hendy) coached me for a long time and in that squad there were all those old-timers and you learn quite a lot.’’