Australian Ashleigh Gentle returned to winning ways at the London T100 Triathlon, to claim her second T100 race of the season and take her back to the top of the series standings.
The 33-year-old enjoyed the victory and said it put her performance at the previous leg of the T100 Triathlon World Tour, where she finished seventh in San Francisco, well and truly behind her.
“That feels pretty good. London put on some beautiful weather and gave us great support and I am pretty happy I can put San Francisco behind me now. It was so painful but actually really enjoyable, too,” Gentle said.
“I am really happy with my swim and bike, but the last couple of laps on the bike were super tough. I actually started to get a bit blurry eyes at one point and was a bit worried but, overall, I was pretty happy after the bike and then just had to focus on finishing strong.”
A warm day in London – the temperature was just over 20 degrees – ensured a quick race for the 20 pro women who took the London T100 start line. The action-packed afternoon played out in front of a large and patriotic British crowd, making for a fitting stage of the four leg of the T100 Triathlon World Tour, the race starting with a sun-bathed swim in the Royal Victoria Docks, followed by an eight lap technical bike course and a fast, flat six lap run route adjacent to London City Airport.
Home favourite Charles-Barclay – who very rarely has company in the water – was threatened in the swim by short-course-triathlete-turn-T100-Wildcard Sophie Coldwell, hot on her heels for the entire 2km leg.
The pair headed out of the water across the blue carpet and up the stairs into T1 over 1 minute clear of third place US athlete, Haley Chura.
With 8 laps of the 10km bike course ahead, Sophie ran out of T1 just in front of Lucy after a tight turnaround in transition.
Athletes were in for a bumpy ride on the bike. Regardless of the infamous London potholes, the drama of the day unfolded on two wheels. Notoriously strong Charles-Barclay, currently rated #1 on the bike, was overtaken by Switzerland’s Imogen Simmonds, who stole the lead over Lucy into T2.
Half way through the run came the news that T100 series leader Lucy Charles-Barclay had stopped. But whilst it was heartbreak for Charles-Barclay, Kat Matthews and Lucy Byram fought hard to keep British hopes alive.
In true Gentle fashion, the Australian accelerated with 9km to go. She overtook Imogen to dominate the final stretch of the 18km run, ultimately taking the tape indoors on the second floor of London’s ExCel Centre in a rapid 3:36:17, almost three minutes ahead of Simmonds in second-place.
After battling with Laura Philipp, a grinning Kat Matthews powered through to take 3rd place, leaving Philipp in fourth and Byram in 5th.
The current women’s standings after the fourth-leg of the T100 series are led by Gentle on 86 points, ahead of India Lee on 61pts – who finished 9th in this race, followed closely by Charles-Barclay in 3rd with 56pts.
