There are few triathletes who win a race 10 times, let alone when it’s also one of the strongest fielded races in the world. Yet Ashleigh Gentle has just succeeded: she won the Noosa Triathlon in Australia, marking her tenth victory.
The Noosa Triathlon is one of the biggest OD races in the world, and after the swim, it didn’t look like Gentle would win the race. She came out of the water in 12th place and was 1:45 minutes behind. Among other top athletes such as Natalie van Coevorden, Fenella Langridge, Hanne de Vet and also the Dutch Lotte Wilms were ahead of her.
During the bike, Wilms initially took the lead, but Gentle rode towards the head of the race very quickly and eventually a leading group of about eight women formed. In the second half of the bike leg, five women remained from that, entering T2 together: Gentle, De Vet, Wilms, Richelle Hill and Sophie Malowiecki.
During the run, it actually became immediately clear that Gentle had no mercy and gave no one a chance to keep her from her tenth Noosa Triathlon victory. She won the race in 1:55:13. Malowiecki finished second in 1:56:49 and Hill finished third in 1:57:14.
Hayden Wilde runs to victory and course record
The men’s race was won by Hayden Wilde. Still trailing by 42 seconds, he came out of the water in tenth place, but on the bike he rode to the front almost immediately and a leading group formed with Wilde, Matthew Hauser, Henri Schoeman and Jamie Riddle. Riddle and Schoeman eventually couldn’t handle the pace and so Wilde and Hauser entered T2 at the same time. During the run, Wilde proved too strong and so he eventually won the race in a time of 1:41:56: a new course record. Hauser was second in 1:42:09 and Schoeman was third in 1:44:20.
