Queenslands Zane Holmes won his second Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain IronMan Series by a wave at Sydney’s Coogee Beach, ahead of former champions and rivals Ky Hurst and Shannon Eckstein.

A ‘footy game’ sized crowd of 25,000 lined Coogee Bay to cheer on the battle between the final three left standing from the starting field of 10 finalists, and to see Holmes take the champions title and $50,000.

Queenslands Zane Holmes won his second Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain IronMan Series by a wave at Sydney’s Coogee Beach, ahead of former champions and rivals Ky Hurst and Shannon Eckstein.

A ‘footy game’ sized crowd of 25,000 lined Coogee Bay to cheer on the battle between the final three left standing from the starting field of 10 finalists, and to see Holmes take the champions title and $50,000.

It was a remarkable recovery for Holmes after a disappointing performance in the second round at Portsea and a slow start in the third and final round of the Nutri-Grain Series. He was at the bottom of the pack in the first two legs of the initial race and was in danger of not qualifying until he made up time in the ski leg.

Shannon Eckstein led all the way in the days second race and was pumped for the third and final race, setting the pace early with a sprint to pass Ky Hurst in the transition run between the ski and swim. Holmes emerged as leader from the swim leg, with Hurst getting caught up in a wave. A rough shore break had made the ski legs difficult all day but Holmes got over a crashing wave which Hurst and Eckstein had to duck under, giving Holmes valuable time to put some water between himself and his two pursuers.

The crowd thought Holmes had it easily in his grasp but went wild as Hurst picked up a wave that brought him up level with Holmes and they hit the beach almost together. But Holmes was determined to make it back-to-back championships and stretched out on the soft sand to break the finish line first.

“It always comes down to that last race, no matter how you perform all day,” said 23 year old Holmes. Holmes said he heard someone in the crowd yelling not to give up in the early race and held onto it. “Don’t give up – I had that in my head the whole way,” he said. “I felt good in the final swim and thought all I could hope for was to catch a wave because you can’t swim down Shannon and Ky, so I couldnt believe it when I swam past Shannon on the way back in and then popped up beside Ky. I think it means more to win back-to-back than it does to win coming off a bad performance in Portsea. To come back from last year when I won everything was always going to be hard.”

Holmes said he was thrilled to be in the final with competitors he considered to be the best in the sport and that he thought the top three IronMen of this generation could have mixed it up with the best ten years ago.

In the IronWomen Series, Northcliffe’s Kristy Cameron also retained her championship title, holding off team mates Kristyl Smith and Hayley Bateup to pick up the $50,000 first prize again. Cameron and Smith, who are best friends and train together, ran a close final race in rough conditions. The shore break saw both Smith and Bateup dumped from their skis in the first leg of the final race, giving 22 year old Cameron a lead that she never gave up.

Meanwhile the SLSA Interstate Championships also benefited from fantastic conditions at South Maroubra Beach, earlier in January. In the Junior Championships the ‘Queensland Cyclones’ suffered a shock loss to arch rivals NSW with ‘The Blues’ using the home beach advantage to score 305 points to 297, in tricky 1.5 metre surf to win back the title they last won in 2002.

However, the following day the Cyclones took out the Senior Championships, although their 1 point victory wasnt enough to overhaul NSW in the battle for the overall pointscore crown.