Gisborne surf athletes Taylor, Corrin in top half of elite fields

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Gisborne surf athletes Cory Taylor and Olivia Corrin are in the top half of Australia's elite ironman and ironwoman competition with two rounds to go.

Taylor is ninth out of 20 male competitors in the Nutri-Grain IronMan and IronWoman Series after the fourth round of six was held at Kurrawa Beach on the Gold Coast yesterday.

Corrin is eighth out of 20 female competitors.

Both are members of the Northcliffe Surf Life Saving Club at Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast and the Midway club in Gisborne. And both excelled in big surf at Kurrawa Beach yesterday.

Taylor finished sixth in the eliminator race to begin Round 4, and was fifth in the second race, the final for the round.

Those placings moved him up into ninth place on the overall leaderboard, on 43.5 points.

Overall, it was his best day in the series so far.

Corrin struggled in the first eliminator heat, finishing 15th, but came back big time in the second race, the final, to finish sixth.

At the end of the day she was eighth overall, on 51.5 points, out of the 20 female competitors.

Reigning ironman champion Ali Day (Surfers Paradise) gave another dominant performance that showcased his exceptional surf skills. He caught a wave from halfway home to win the men's final ahead of Matt Bevilacqua from Northcliffe and Jy Timperley (Burleigh Heads Mowbray Park).

It was the fourth straight win for Day in this summer's series.

In the ironwoman final, Harriet Brown (Northcliffe) led from start to finish.

Despite starting off a six-second handicap, Brown set up a commanding lead in the opening swim leg, and held on to it throughout the ski and board.

Georgia Miller (Northcliffe) took second place and New Zealander Danielle McKenzie was third.

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