Rarely do nippers get the chance to compete on the same stage as the opens, let alone with athletes the calibre of an Ironman champion.
But that is what will happen when Wanda Surf Lifesaving Club host their inaugural One Club Carnival on Sunday.
Former Cronulla junior Nathan Smith, winner of the Open Ironman at the 2005 Australian Championships, will continue his comeback from a broken foot at the Wanda event.
For Smith the carnival will also double as preparation for the Nutri-Grain Finals Series to be held at Cronulla from February 24-26.
The 35-year-old returned to racing earlier this month and told the Leader the one club concept would be a success.
“That’s probably the way carnivals should go and Wanda need to be applauded for making it a one carnival for the club,” he said.
“Never do we get the chance to race at the one carnival with nippers. It’ll be a great opportunity for the nippers to watch the senior competitors and watch how they go about their business and do their warm ups and race and go through different race techniques. It’ll be great for clubs to sit under the one tent and mix with each other.
“Not only myself but guys like Mitchell and Hayden Allum, Britney and Elyssa Pierce from Wanda will be there as well. Then you’ve got Jay Furness and Taylar Puskaric who are on the cusp of being in the Kellogg’s series.
“You’ll get all these young guys being inspired hopefully by some of these older competitors and if we go round and give them a pat on the back it’ll make them feel welcome and I’m sure they’ll have a lot of fun.
“Hopefully they continue on in the sport because at the end of the day we want to live a healthy lifestyle and we want kids to grow up when they’re 16 or 17 still loving the water and being part of the surf club movement.”
Smith, who still lives and works full-time in the shire as a PE teacher, competed at North Cronulla’s carnival before heading to North Wollongong for round five of the 2016-17 Ironman series at the start of the month.
He will compete in the sixth and final round of the season at Surfers Paradise starting on February 3 before the finals series at Cronulla.
“I’m looking to get in a few big carnivals before the end of February. I’m still trying to get faster and stronger at the moment,” Smith said.
“I’m still climbing, trying to catch up with everyone else because I missed a fair bit [after breaking my foot].
“It feels good, still a bit swollen. But it’s fine in all the training now. Swimming is probably the one that’s giving me the most grief.
“The end of the season is where you want to be going your fastest. So now that gives us a great opportunity to work towards that and carry that form on. Two weeks after that we’ve got state and two weeks after that it’s Aussies. Everything now is geared towards racing well and being fit and fast at Kellogg’s.
“That’s why I want to do well. Normally I would have done half a dozen [carnivals] by now. The Wanda carnival is always a really big showing by a lot of the Sydney clubs. It’s a pretty good level of competition as well, I know last year was a big carnival so I’m so it’s going to be just as big.”
