Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

Coolangatta Gold on the Gold Coast is Round 1 of the Body Science Great Australian Swim Series on September 25th.

Olympic 10K Marathon Swimmer (2008 and 2012) and Australian Iron Man champion Ky Hurst is the founder of the Series and will be swimming in races on the day, along with world 5K champion Melissa Gorman (shown above in pink) and top pro marathon swimmer Trent Grimsley. Two-time world champion triathlete Miles Stewart will announce the event. There will be a Junior Kids Swim 300m Swim and the 2.2K competition as part of the 4-swim series. The next event will be held on November 20th at the iconic Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsundays, Sutton’s Beach Redcliffe (November 27th) and the season-ending Australia Day swim on Sydney Harbour in front of The Opera House.

Ky spoke about the new Whitehaven Beach swim, “It’s great to be back and great to have added a new swim to our series. Our goal has always been to have swims at great locations so to be able to add Whitehaven to the list is just fantastic and a measure of the success of last year’s series.”

He spoke about last season and what he is looking forward in this season, “I think why last season was so great was the mix of competitors. We had over 1,400 entries from 7 year old kids to 70 year old veterans, as well as the cream of Australian swimming talent. It was wonderful to see little kids and adults of varying swimming ability participate and rub shoulders with swimmers the class of Geoff Huegill, my fellow Olympic qualifier, Melissa Gorman and Australian Champions Meagan Nay and Ryan Napoleon just to name a few.”

Body Science’s common goal is to encourage Australians to be fit and healthy and make the most of its great outdoors. But can there be any busier man at the elite level than Ky who is competing in two different sports and holding down his position as the organizer of this series?

“I’m feeling great heading into the new season. I’m fit again after a few setbacks last year and ready to make the next 12 months something to remember. It’s going to be a hectic year with the competing in the Nutri-grain Iron-man series, keeping my open-water swimming training on track and also the challenges that come with being an event organiser but I can’t wait. Obviously winning gold at the Olympics is the main game. but I just love competing in Iron Man events so I won’t be backing off that either. Funnily enough, I’m not nearly as nervous about those two things as I am about making sure the swim series is a success.”

Copyright © 2011 by World Open Water Swimming Association