Both men's winners from last year's Orange Eight Day Games will return in 2019 to resume their fight to see who'll come out on top of the event.
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Jackson Leckie and Simon Wright couldn't be split in the competition's 42nd year in 2018, finishing deadlocked on 533 points to share the crown, but both will return for the 2019 competition to go head-to-head when the Eight Day Games begin on November 23.
The 2018 queen of sport in Nicole Williamson is unavailable for this year's competition, leaving the door open for 10-time champion Cathy Johnson to reclaim her crown if she can fend off last year's third-place Bec Ford.
However, Eight Day Games secretary Jason Lyne said 11 new women made up a 32-strong field in the queen competition, and with their sporting prowess were still a mystery he wasn't locking in a Ford-Johnson showdown.
"It's really great to have so many fresh faces involved," he said, with nine new men taking part in a field of 35.
Former competitors Nikita Bourke, Jacob Evans and Jed Hawthorn are among those returning after several years out of the Eight Day Games, with Lyne flagging the latter as a potential competitor after his most recent year nearly saw him finish on the podium despite missing two days of competition due to a wedding.
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