Australians Aaron Royle and Ashleigh Gentle won the elite titles at the Subaru Noosa Triathlon Sunday.

Men

Royle defended his 2013 Noosa title in a sprint finish that edged two fellow Aussies - runner-up Dan Wilson by 3 seconds and 3rd-place finisher Ryan Bailie by 7 seconds. Royle combined a 3rd-best 17:50 swim, a 10th-best 58:12 bike split and a race-fastest 31:57 10k run to finish in 1:47:59.

Casey Munro took the early lead on the swim and bike, arriving in T2 with a 40 seconds lead on Ben Shaw and 90 seconds on a pack of seven that included Royle, Cameron Good, 2012 Noosa champion Peter Kerr, Wilson and Commonwealth Games 3rd place finisher Ryan Bailie.

Within a kilometer, the pack of 7 relegated Munro and Shaw to the back and settled in for a game of 7 Little Indians as eventually Good and Kerr. With 400 meters to go, Bailie lost the string and with 200 meters left, Royle powered past Wilson for the win.

I can’t believe it,” said an out of breath Royle, who won the weekend before. “This is the one I wanted. I won it last year and I’m over the moon. I really had to work and I’m pretty spent.”

Women

Ashleigh Gentle had to work hard, but she built up an unassailable lead on the run that left her with time to soak up the cheers of the home town crowd and not run out of breath at the finish.

Gentle began with a 3rd-best 20:07 swim that left her 20 seconds back of Kiwi Nicky Samuels, 18 seconds behind Canadian comeback kid Paula Findlay and about 5 seconds ahead of Ironman star Caroline Steffen of Switzerland and ITU-turned-Ironman star Liz Blatchford of Great Britain.

By the end of a closely contested bike leg, Steffen led the pack, followed closely by Blatchford, then after a few meters, Samuels and Gentle racked their bikes. About 1 minute later, Findlay started her run. Within 8 kilometers, Findlay has passed everyone but Gentle and was not making any more headway on the leader.

Gentle finished her day with a 2nd-best 36:18 run to finish in 1:59:10 with a 48 seconds lead on Findlay’s women’s-fastest 36:04 run. Steffen, showing nice Olympic distance speed for an Ironman veteran, ran a 3rd-best 37:38 10k to take 3rd – 31 seconds behind Findlay.

“I knew this race would be really tough – some really great competitors pushed me to the end,
said Gentle, who won last weekend at Nepean and won this race for the first time in 2012. “It is a special privilege to be able to come home and race an iconic event. To win this race two times feels pretty good!”

Subaru Noosa Triathlon
Noosa, Australia
November 2, 2014
S 1.5k / B 40k / R 10k

Results

Elite Men

1. Aaron Royle (AUS) 1:47:59
2. Dan Wilson (AUS) 1:48:02
3. Ryan Bailie (AUS) 1:48:06
4. Peter Kerr (AUS) 1:48:32
5. Cameron Good (AUS) 1:48:45
6. Brad Kahlefeldt (AUS) 1:50:38
7. Sam Betten (AUS) 1:50:56
8. Ben Cook (AUS) 1:51:00
9. Tyler Butterfield (BER) 1:51:06
10. Matthew Roberts (AUS) 1:51:10

Elite Women

1. Ashleigh Gentle (AUS) 1:59:10
2. Paula Findlay (CAN) 1:59:58
3. Caroline Steffen (SUI) 2:00:29
4. Liz Blatchford (GBR) 2:01:37
5. Nicky Samuels (NZL) 2:02:22
6. Felicity Sheedy-Ryan (AUS) 2:04:39
7. Melissa Hauschildt (AUS) 2:04:49
8. Sarah Crowley (AUS) 2:06:21
9. Radka Vodickova (CZE) 2:06:48
10. Ellie Salthouse (AUS) 2:07:41