Surfers Paradise will host Round 4 of the 2019/20 Nutri-Grain Ironman and Ironwoman Series this Sunday with Lana Rogers closing in on a Series victory having won the opening three rounds, while the men’s Series is still wide open.
Athletes’ best results in four of the five races will be combined to provide their overall points in the Series, with Rogers requiring a top two finish in Sunday’s “specialist” race to win the Series outright following her perfect start to the season.
“I haven’t been thinking about winning again, I’ve never done this format before so I’ve just been focusing on that,” said Rogers.
“Georgia (Miller) is the queen of sprint racing and Lizzie (Welborn) is always right beside me or hot on my heels, so I’m expecting them to come out firing”.
Round four will introduce the new ‘SPECIALIST’ format which consists of four separate four-minute races, one for each discipline of swim, board, ski and run, followed by a fifth ironman/ironwoman race.
The starting order for the final race will be determined from the rankings from the cumulative points of the opening four races. A staggered starting order sees athletes begin in two second intervals, highest to lowest ranked.
The Ironman Series has seen three different winners over the opening three rounds in Matt Bevilacqua (Rnd 1), Matt Poole (Rnd 2) and Luff Cuff (Rnd 3) making the Series wide open with results on Sunday likely to play a key role in the outcome of the Series.
Surfers Paradise typically provides conditions that will make for exciting for racing, something Rogers knows only too well.
“Surfers Paradise beach and I also don’t normally get along well,” said Rogers. “In the past I’ve been hit with six and seven foot waves … hopefully Surfers Paradise and I can be friends again after Sunday.
All the action will be shown live on Fox Sports and Kayo from 1-3pm (Qld time), 2-4PM AEDT.