He's the undisputed Coolie King.
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Now Ali Day has claimed the throne as Australian ironman champion.
On a day with surf lifesaving legend Shannon Eckstein, a nine-time series winner, retired, Day dominated the final event at Wanda Beach in Sydney.
Day was in cruise control by the time he completed the ski leg and ran up the sand to the finish line.
In big seas Day made his move in the swim leg, reading the difficult conditions perfectly to surge from the main pack.
"I stood on this beach after the finals last year so upset as I was so close to winning," Day said.
"I had put everything into it but I lost to a countback which was really hard.
"This year I was almost too scared to put it all on the line and go for broke incase it happened again, but I have some really good people around me who said I had to keep doing it and so I did and I haven’t looked back.
“I pretty much started training for this straight after that race last year and it’s hard to get on the podium once but to do it twice and win two Nutri-Grain Series is awesome.
“I learnt by not winning last year that this is what happens in sport and sometimes you are not going to win and that’s OK, but I knew that if I kept turning up and doing all this hard work that I would walk away with a series title again and it is so good and such a relief as I have thought about it this moment every day for the last year.”
Kendrick Louis finished second, with Warilla-Barrack Point's Ben Carberry third.
It meant Louis moved ahead of Matt Poole, who was Day's biggest title threat, into second overall.
Day had led the ironman series pointscore since winning the eliminator event at North Wollongong in December.
The series triumph means Day now holds the Nutri-Grain, Coolangatta Gold and world titles.
His achievements last year resulted in him taking out the Mercury sportsperson of the year award.
Day has won six of the past seven Coolangatta Gold races, not competing in 2014 due to illness when Thirroul's Josh Minogue was successful.
"To be on the trophy once, let alone six times, with the guys whose names are on it is a pretty amazing feeling, almost bizarre really," Day said of the Coolangatta Gold. “Darren Mercer’s obviously from the Illawarra as well and people like that are who I wanted to be like when I was a young kid.
“Hopefully I’m one of those guys for the kids now who want to be like me.”
Nowra's Kirsty Higgison finished the series in fourth place, despite struggling with injury this year and finishing 13th in Saturday's final-round eliminator.
Day first claimed the ironman series title in 2014-15 and has been a three-time runner-up.
He is the only Illawarra athlete to win the series since the days of dominance by Dean and Darren Mercer in the 1980s and 90s.
Eckstein retires after winning the title nine times between 2002-3 and 2015-16.
IRONMAN
Series final
Overall pointscore
Men: Ali Day 445, Kendrick Louis 376, Matt Poole 374, Ben Carberry 349, Cory Taylor 349.
Women: Georgia Miller 403, Maddy Dunn 400, Lana Rogers 329, Kirsty Higgison 324, Brielle Cooper 321.