Iron athletes win Jim Wall trophy

THIS year’s Surf Coast Times Jim Wall Iron Man has been run and won, with locals from host club Torquay SLSC featuring on the podium in both the men’s and women’s events.

Australia’s oldest ironman race saw a field of 25 men and nine women come to Torquay surf beach for the event, which took place over the traditional M-shaped layout and was drawn to run in a skiboard- run-swim format.

In a field featuring some of Victoria’s best surfsport athletes, Matt Gillings (Northcliffe) won the ironman event ahead of Jesse Coulson (Ocean Grove) and Archie Vernon (Torquay).

In the ironwoman event, Manly’s Naomi Scott defended her 2018 title, taking the win ahead of Sophie Thomas (Warrnambool) and Grace Harris (Torquay).

Torquay SLSC race director Peter Quinlan said both events were hotly contested.

“It was a real dogfight in both the men’s and women’s races, especially for the men, where the lead changed three or four times.

“Last year was amazing because it was part of the Ocean6 Series, so we had the cream of the crop taking part. Having said that, it was good to see a lot of Victorians who normally wouldn’t have otherwise entered put in their entries, and the standard of our Victorian athletes is improving – we’re not far away.

“You had Archie Vernon, as a 17-year-old, taking on Matt Gillings, who’s leading the swim category in the Ocean6; Matt didn’t have it all his own way.

“As a club, we’ve got to create events like this and push and test our athletes.”