Ironman on a mission

Trevor Hendy (left) and Guy Leech.

Noosa – the spiritual training home of race legend Guy Leech – will get to crown the king and queen of ironman racing in the revamped $300,000 Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain series.

Leech, who shaded the great Grant Kenny for back-to-back wins in the Coolangatta Gold to become the new poster boy of ironman racing back in the 1980s, is on a mission to get lifesaving’s glamour competition back up where it belongs.

With the sort of energy he used to attack waves, the fighting-fit Leech has thrown himself into relaunching a five-round competition with something that has been sorely lacking – live television.

Network 10, with the backing of Surf Life Saving Australia and Sports Entertainment Limited, will be screening four live broadcasts, including round three at Coolum Sunday, December 19 and the Noosa final eliminator Sunday, January 9.

Leech, on Tuesday at the Noosa surf club, said he was keen to launch the brand new dawn at the club because “I love the place”.

He has Noosa ironman legend Alan Coates to thank for instilling his special bond with Noosa back in the mid-1980s, that once saw him buy a house in Sunshine Beach as soon as he could afford it from his race winnings and sponsorship.

“I’d had a chat to Coatsy during an ironman race and I was saying that it’s really hard to get fit for the first ironman race in October in Sydney when it’s so cold,” Leech said.

“He said you should come up here – bring your best guys and we’ll set up a squad and train for three months and be fit as a fiddle for the first race of the Nutri-Grain series.

“We drove up one evening on a Monday just short of June 1986 and we slept the night in the clubhouse and we got bitten by bugs.

“It was great, I kept coming back here for about eights years.”

Back in his heyday Leech and his squad used to train with local lifesavers like Russell Green – now the local councillor, who was delighted when his old friend wanted to bring the prestigious event to Noosa.

“This is just an opportune time to showcase Noosa Beach, not only the beauty of it, but the athleticism of these guys and women, which is just incredible,” Cr Green said.

“It will take it out into the market place again to really promote that and all the attributes fit in so well with the brand of Noosa.”

On Monday afternoon during a training paddle, Leech went head to head on the ski with Darren Mercer, another champion ironman who now is surf coach at Noosa SLSC.

Leech said their one-on-one was something they had not done since the 1988 series final.

The two are training up to race again in the Legends of Surf relays involving all the big names of yesteryear.

This is something that pleases Coates, who was at the series launch and said he was proud of all the former greats of ironman racing’s glory days.