The NSW lineup for the 2025/26 Iron Series has been set following the Trials at Tugun in Queensland on 20-21 September, with nine athletes across the male and female fields set to represent our state.
Four NSW-based male athletes (Jackson Borg, Charlie Verco, Noah Steiner and Dan Collins) and two females (Piper Harrison and Pipi Te Pania) came through the gruelling two-day trials with tickets to the 2025/26 Series, which has stops in Newcastle, Maroubra and north of the border at Miami Beach.
Coming into the weekend, no male athlete representing a NSW club had a guaranteed place on the starting line in the Hunter on December 13, however Noah Steiner (Wanda SLSC) quickly put that to bed with an impressive second place effort in the initial Enduro course, where the top five finishers all qualified for the Series.
The field had earlier been cut down from an initial list of entrants well over 100 to 25.
Jackson Borg and Charlie Verco (Newport SLSC) also finished in the top five in the first qualifying event, confirming their places, while Dan Collins (Redhead SLSC) was consistently impressive in the following two traditional course races – where points based on finishing position were accumulated and the overall top 10 would also qualify.
Collins was the final NSW athlete to qualify after earlier in the day, Piper Harrison showed her elite mentality to come out of the female Enduro course with a top five finish and a ticket to the Series, while Pipi Te Pania stunned the crowd with a comeback, of sorts, to secure her place.
After finishing outside the top 20 out of 25 competitors in the Enduro event, it was going to be an uphill battle to accumulate the points necessary to climb into the top 10 over the final two races, but Te Pania placed fourth and sixth to secure one of the last spots.
They join Lizzie Welborn, Analise Kibble and Next Gen winner, Olivia Clues (all Newport SLSC) ahead of the opening round at Newcastle Beach in December.
Tuesday 23 September 2025