South West Rocks raised Finn Askew wins Coolangatta Gold short course event

Saturday saw Askew compete in the Coolangatta Gold short course with the win his maiden title in the event, finishing in 02:07:08.

The short course consisted of a 10 and a half kilometre ski paddle, two and a half kilometre swim, three and a half kilometre board and five and a half kilometre run.

Askew said the event went to plan.

"I started off strong, pushed the pace from the start, broke the group up at the halfway mark and put a three minute lead into the ski," he recounted.

"I built from there, and ended up finishing with a five-minute lead in a competitive field so I was super happy with how that all played out."

The win marked significant improvement for Askew after previously finishing fifth overall in the event when competing in the under 19s category.

The Surfers Paradise based athlete will now prepare for what should hopefully be his second Nutri-Grain ironman series with trials in mid-December.

"I was meant to do long course but ended up pulling out the week of because of the trials," he said.

"I thought this would be best preparation for that and wanted to get some momentum rolling from the short course to trials.

"I'm looking forward to continuing that momentum through the summer."

With a strong training squad Askew is hoping his training can lead to a second appearance in the series.

"I've got an awesome training squad in Surfers Paradise with Ali Day, TJ Hendy, Max Beattie and Nathan Gray - all experienced people," he said.

"Ali won his 7^th Coolangatta title - the most in history - so I'm alongside the best, pushing me every day and helping me go to another level so I'm feeling confident and ready to go for trials."

As for a trip to South West Rocks, COVID-19 and border closures have made that impossible as he hopes to return for the festive season.

"I haven't been home since April, that's been hard," he said.

"I'm looking forward to getting home for Christmas, we get a week off, so it'll be good to re-set and prepare."

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