Ashleigh Gentle Goes to Eleven at Noosa

There are now three certainties in life: death, taxes, and Ashleigh Gentle winning the Noosa Triathlon.

Gentle unleashed another trademark performance to claim her eleventh Noosa Tri title, and her tenth in a row. Coming out of the water in tenth, Gentle started progressing her way through the field once on the bike. Midway through the ride, Gentle put her nose in front and would never relinquish the lead again, with a minute margin of victory over second placed Richelle Hill. Natalie Van Coevorden earned third place.

Post-race, Gentle was elated, saying, “This year there was a particularly strong swim field, I know I don’t have the speed to come out with some of those women, the short course specialists and super swimmers but I still had a reasonable swim actually, the group of girls that I came out with and then I just tried to hammer the bike really hard at the start, just to try and get to the front of the race as quickly as possible, I surprised myself a little bit with how strong I was riding and how quickly I did catch the field but then from then on I led the whole way on the bike and once I got off I just tried to stay composed as best as I could.”

GARMIN NOOSA TRIATHLON – WOMEN’S RESULTS

1. Ashleigh Gentle – 1:55:56
2. Richelle Hill – 1:56:58
3. Natalie Van Coevorden – 1:58:49
4. Sophie Malowiecki – 1:59:01
5. Tara Sosinski – 1:59:20
6. Nicole Van Der Kaay – 2:01:39
7. Chloe Hartnett – 2:02:26
8. Lotte Wilms – 2:04:05
9. Charlotte McShane – 2:04:15
10. Mikayla Messer – 2:04:33

The men’s race was a long-time duel between Brayden Mercer and Jamie Riddle. Mercer had the fastest swim of the day, emerging just ahead of Riddle and Tayler Reid. With typical pack jockeying, Mercer and Riddle traded positions on the front until shortly before T2, where Riddle pushed onward to build a gap on the chasers.

However, it would not stick, with Mercer never letting Riddle out of sight. At 2.5 kilometers, Mercer re-took the lead and continued pushing onward to take the win. Mercer would fade slightly, passed by Reid and Luke Willian. The top four men all finished within 1:07 of one another.

“I knew that the swim is my strength so I thought if I could push it from the start, get a little group together on the bike and then if I rode to what I knew I could do on the bike, which I did, and then come off the plan was to push myself to the finish line on the run and that’s what I did and I got the win, I’m honestly over the moon,” said Mercer.

Over 8,000 athletes took part in the 41st edition of the Olympic distance event.

GARMIN NOOSA TRIATHLON – MEN’S RESULTS

1. Brayden Mercer – 1:43:20
2. Tayler Reid – 1:43:58
3. Luke Willian – 1:44:15
4. Jamie Riddle – 1:44:27
5. Jake Birtwhistle – 1:45:30
6. Kurt McDonald – 1:46:08
7. Caleb Noble – 1:47:53
8. Jack Sosinski – 1:48:43
9. Jack Crome – 1:49:02
10. Joe Begbie – 1:49:22

Photos: Alex Polizzi

Tags: