MultiSportConsultants - Be Your Best

Nick did his first Triathlon in 1984 on the Gold Coast as a 17-year-old. It was a 400m swim / 12km bike / 4km run. A small club event but an overall win made the debut all the more memorable. In March 1985 the first venture into Olympic distance saw a victory over an experienced field at Mooloolaba on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. The Time of 1.58 was not bad at the time but it was the 3-minute victory over the Noosa Triathlon 3rd place getter from 1984 that had some established elite’s taking notice. Later that year, winning Noosa in a record time showed that the initial victory earlier that year was no fluke. By the end of that 1985/86 season Nick had added numerous wins to the list but it was the Australian Long Course Championships that was the major standout so far in his career to that point.

By the late 80’s Nick had established himself as one of the best in Australia and traded wins with Brad Beven, Stephen Foster, Greg Welch and Greg Stewart. By 1991 the overseas circuit was calling and between 1991 and 1995 Nick lived France for part of the season and had some standout races. Winning the ITU Cup in China in 1991 came after a solid season of racing in Australia, which saw Nick take out the Australian Triathlete of the Year Title as well finishing well up in the ITU World Cup Standings. He was also named men’s Captain of the World Championship team. In 1992 coming 5th at Nice in France was the highest placing by an Australian since Greg Stewarts 5th in 1987 and by the end of the season had won 4 more events and had established himself as one of the top Australian performers in Europe.

Another good European stint in 1993 saw Nick continue the good form and lead to his debut at Europe’s oldest Ironman event at Almere Holland. The time of 8.26 was the fastest by an Australian at the time on debut and signaled the desire to start to concentrate on long events from that point. Another solid Ironman 6 months later in Ironman Spain confirmed the potential and with that event came entry to Hawaii in 1994. A promising start with 3rd from the swim and second onto the road was wrecked by a new sponsored bike poorly set up. A valuable lesson learnt. Before the DNF, there was the buzz that came from leading the event and trade turns at the front with eventual winner, fellow Aussie Greg Welch. It was during this time that Nick started to have some health issues in the form of gastrointestinal upsets. From 1992 the problems started and intensified in 1993 but were controlled till 1995. It was then that Nick suffered a major blow that signaled the end of his professional athletic career.