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Without much racing to do until June I have taken some time out for myself and relaxed the training schedule a bit. Other than running a few kilometres a day, my only other form of fitness is coming from surfing.

I’m having a great time getting on the board and the surf has been good up here on the Gold Coast of late. I went out to Snapper Rocks this morning and had a good session before heading to work.

Hopefully practice will make perfect for my trip to G Land in May – looking forward to it.

The Aussie team has just been announced for the Lifesaving World Titles in Germany and I wasn’t named.

I’m not too disappointed as I have been on the team plenty of times before, but I do wonder what the selectors’ agenda was. They selected six males and six females for the championships which consist of ten pool events and ten surf events and Shannon Eckstein is the only ironman selected.

It seems they have gone for a lot of pool based guys and there are some names on the squad I don’t even know.

I probably hurt my chances a bit by not attending the pool championships last week but I had a wedding to attend where I was one of the groomsmen. The wedding was great and it was one of my good mates tying the knot so I enjoyed it.

As I said I’m not too bothered by missing out on that team. The event I am really looking forward to is the International Challenge in South Africa next year, which can double as a chance to do some more surfing.

Speaking of surfing I really want to get the message across about some dangers you can face while you are out there.

When the weather is bad and visibility is poor there is a greater chance of shark attack. I feel so sorry for the family of the kid who was taken by a shark near Ballina and I hope people learn not to surf near river mouths because they are notorious for being areas where sharks inhabit.

Having said that I have been in the water most days of my life and only seen one shark.

Take care in the surf - Zane

I had a great week at the Australian titles and despite not winning the ironman I was pleased with my haul of four gold and one silver.

The silver was of course the ironman where Shannon Eckstein got one back on me by beating me in what turned out to be a thrilling head to head battle once we cleared away from the pack.

The thing I was the happiest about was my ski paddling. Not only did we win the ski relay but I made it to the final of the individual ski event. I finished in seventh place overall, just out of the medals and with Olympic competitors in front of me. Olympic Gold medallist Clint Robinson took out the event.

So to make the final in a field of that quality was something I am very proud of, especially with Beijing just around the corner for a lot of those guys.

The events I won gold in were the taplin relay, board relay, ski relay and the surf teams relay.

Probably one of the biggest moments of the week was Alicia Marriott winning the national title in her home state. She has done a lot for lifesaving in WA and for her to win the title over there was huge.

The event and the crowds were also big which created a great atmosphere at Scarborough Beach and it reminded me a little bit of the atmosphere we had at Kurrawa for a number of years.

I was announced as a member of the high performance squad after the event, although we are yet to find out who will be representing Australia at the World titles. I would say it will be me or Shannon but probably not both. There are a lot of events on the card and you need to be good at all of them.

I won’t be too bothered if they pick Shannon. Of course I want it to be me but the real race for the world ironman champion happens in the club’s event the week after the international competition and I will be there with Northcliffe.

I’m now going to look forward to a brief break from training as well as attending a couple of weddings and planning my surfing trip to G Land with Shannon and another mate.

Zane

The Queensland titles have come and gone and I was able to become the state’s Ironman Champion. The race panned out perfectly for me. All the breaks went my way while my competition failed to have them go their way.

The order of legs was ski, board and swim and after opening up a lead on the ski I was able to extend my advantage in every leg and finish around 100 metres in front of anyone else.

It was a good feeling and gives me confidence heading into the Australian Championships in Perth next week.

While I am looking to do well next week and try and repeat my performance of five gold medals from last year, I have to get over a dose of the flu first. It’s knocked me around a bit, but it may be a blessing in disguise because it has forced me to have a bit of a rest.

The championships are being held at Scarborough beach and, aside from it being a great venue, it will be an action-packed week. There are 28 races overall and I am taking part in 8 events which should test me right out.

Those events are ironman, swim, ski, the team swim, team board relay, taplin relay, team ski relay and the double ski.

As you can see it’s a pretty packed program and at this stage I plan on contesting everything, but if one event has to go it will be the individual ski race. There are heats, quarter finals, semi finals and then a final in the event and if I’m feeling tired it will be the event to go.

The week will start for me with an appearance for Telstra at Scarborough beach at 12:30 on Wednesday, so come down and say g’day!

After that it’s straight into racing at what I am told is the largest sporting event outside the Olympics. Two years ago at Kurrawa there were 8000 competitors at the National Championships and this year the number is set to be around 5000.

That is one reason why I love the Australian Championships. The other is the competitive nature. It’s practically the best field in the world in the ironman and if you win it you know you have done very well.

See you there - Zane

I don’t think anyone was more surprised than I was when I won the Kellogg’s Ironman series at Coogee on the weekend.

I knew I could win the race but I never thought Shannon Eckstein would finish fourth. I can’t remember the last time Shannon finished fourth before last weekend. He is such a consistent competitor and an amazingly good reader of the conditions.

I knew it was possible but I didn’t really believe the result was attainable and if you were there you would have seen the surprise on my face.

The win is probably in the top five of my career. I would put it up there with my Coolangatta Gold victory as well as my Australian and World titles. This series is really the best one we compete in and the only truly professional one so to win it after having to come from behind was huge.

That’s my 10th series gone now and I have won five of them, which is a pretty good strike rate.

I felt really good leading into the first race and I wanted to get a good start. I didn’t want to be chasing and having to make up ground early on. I knew I could do that in the swim leg and I was able to take it out.

Race two saw me wanting to conserve energy for the final and I just concentrated on making the final race of the day. Dean Mercer took the second race out and I want to say what a phenomenal athlete he is to still be so competitive at 37 years of age.. It’s not something I can see myself doing in 10 years time. Deano is a marvel.

At the end of the second race Brendan Sarson flew home in the sprint and then took it out really hard in the ski leg for the final race. The ski is his strength so I wasn’t too worried but I was hurting badly as I paddled out on the ski.

I still knew I could win. I have a good record in the format with three final wins out of five starts. I was finally able to get a bit of luck in the swim leg and pulled away from the other five guys including Shannon.

When I got on that board I was putting the big ones in right from the start. The board is probably my weakest leg and with Shannon and Pearce Leonard behind me I knew I couldn’t really give them a sniff. At that stage I was competing on pure adrenalin until I crossed the line and collapsed in the sand. I was spent!

I was also shocked to see Shannon wasn’t in second and the win didn’t really sink in until a while after the event had finished. I even forgot I had won a Jeep for a year so getting the keys was a bit of a surprise.

I want to thank the fans for all their support over the series. This last week has been a bit of a blur and I will be heading down to Newcastle this weekend to watch their Senior championships, before getting ready for my own State titles in two and a half weeks time.

After that it’s all going to be about training for the World titles in Germany in July, which I am looking forward to.

Zane

I felt like I raced very well last weekend at the Ocean Assault Grand Final. I think that statement is reflected in the results of the event where I was second in the ironman, second in the surf race and winner of the ski race.

Strange as it may seem, the event I won (the ski race) was possibly my worst race of the weekend. I just had the luck go my way for a change. I completely blew the start in the ski race and was placed in sixth or  seventh going around the cans. I was thinking about was not busting my guts to get the win when I got a nice small runner which took me all the way through to the lead group. I was also fortunate the ski race had a run finish which gave me a huge advantage over the ski paddlers who aren’t really noted for their running ability.

Unfortunately I didn’t have much luck in the  ironman and surf races. I was actually leading the ironman the whole way when Shannon Eckstein and Corey Jones, who were either side of me, pulled waves and I was left to swim in because the wave didn’t break where I was. I guess they just read the conditions better.

I also led the surf race the whole way with Shannon in third place when some of the guys at the back got a wave through whereas we had to swim through the wave zone. I was able to fight back to second place and finish ahead of Shannon, which has given me a bit more confidence coming into this weekend at Coogee in Sydney.

Looking ahead to Coogee the format makes it a very interesting final day with the three races. Eighteen competitors start the first race before the bottom six are eliminated, the bottom six in race two are then eliminated and the final six are left in race three. The trick is to race well enough to be in the top groups but to still conserve enough energy for the final race where you need to go all out to win.

I think the format suits me. Over the last five years I have won the final race twice, finished second twice and third once, so the results give me confidence. Although Shannon has won the event the last two years and I am sure his confidence is up.

This year’s final might give me a bit of an advantage in that the legs are ski, swim, board. With my best two legs at the beginning of the race I might be able to open up a lead and make Shannon chase me in the board, which I think is his best leg. Unfortunately he doesn’t have a weak leg and I know he will be close the whole way.

Looking at the field I know I need to win and Shannon to finish third. Wes Berg is one guy who I think is in good enough form to be right up there.

However that’s not something I can afford to be concerned about. I just have to focus on my own race and no one else’s. If I win the race then I have put myself in the position to win the series.

Zane.