Ashleigh Gentle gets 10th win, Hayden Wilde sets course record at 40th anniversary Noosa Tri

She’s won a quarter of all the races held here in beautiful Noosa, the site of the world’s largest triathlon. Today Australian Olympian Ashleigh Gentle was determined to take her 10th title here in Queensland, Australia and, while she was completely respectful of her competition, once the 10 km run got rolling there was little doubt that she move into the double digits on the win front. While Gentle was dominating the women’s race, New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde was pushing the pace in the men’s race, but Aussie Matt Hauser wasn’t making his life easy, pushing him right to the line and his course-record.

Master class in racing

She’s only 32, but Gentle’s 10 wins here in Noosa are an example of just how long she’s been in the sport. That became evident as she walked third-place finisher, 21-year-old Richelle Hill (who’s mother, Rina, won this race twice in the 90s), through the process of opening a bottle of champagne – Gentle has come a long way since winning that first title in 2012.

Mikayla Messer, a former open water elite swimmer who has now “traded 20 hours of swim training a week for 30 hours of triathlon training” led the women out of the water, well clear of Lotte Wilms and even further ahead of a big group that included Gentle and Hanne de Vet.

Once on the bike, though, Messer would get a flat and it wasn’t long before a group had formed up at the front that included Gentle, Wilms, Hill and Sophie Malowiecki. (Another pre-race favourite, Natalie van Coevorden would also flat, while Amelia Watkinson, still recovering from a bout of COVID, would never factor in the race for the win.)

Gentle led into T2, but through the opening stages of the run had company in the form of Malowiecki and Hill. Gentle quickly ran herself clear, though, and cruised through a 34:06 run split to take the day in 1:55:13. Malowiecki would take second in 1:56:49 with Hill rounding out the podium in 1:57:14.

Elite Women

1. Ashleigh Gentle (AUS) – 1:55:13
2. Sophie Malowiecki (AUS) – 1:56:49
3. Richelle Hill (AUS) – 1:57:14
4. Hanne De Vet (BEL) – 1:58:55
5. Charlotte McShane (AUS) – 2:00:16
6. Lotte Wilms (NLD) – 2:00:25
7. Jaz Hedgeland (AUS) – 2:00:38
8. Kira Hedgeland (AUS) – 2:00:51
9. Fenella Langridge (GBR) – 2:01:24
10. Milan Agnew (AUS) – 2:01:53

Wilde sets bike course record

Having moved to Andorra, Hayden Wilde has done some training with some big names in the world of long-course racing (including Jan Frodeno and Cameron Wurf), so was keen to “put the TT bike to the test” as he prepares for Ironman 70.3 Melbourne next weekend. One would think that the bike and his prowess on it passed that test as he set a new bike course record, hitting T2 with a lead of about 30 seconds on swim leader Matt Hauser and Olympic bronze medalist Henri Schoeman.

Wilde managed to get lost in transition, though – in his defence, it is a large transition with 7,500 bikes to be racked – and gave back all of the hard-earned time he’d made on the bike and would end up coming out of T2 alongside the Australian favourite.

Wilde would open up a gap through 5 km, but was all-too-aware of the Aussie’s closing ability and kept an eye over his shoulder right to the line, which he reached in 1:41:56 (after a 30:33 10 km) to Hauser’s 1:42:09, while Schoeman crossed the line in 1:44:20.

Elite Men

1. Hayden Wilde (NZL) – 1:41:56
2. Matt Hauser (AUS) – 1:42:09
3. Henri Schoeman (RSA) – 1:44:20
4. Jake Birtwhistle (AUS) – 1:45:23
5. Kurt McDonald (AUS) – 1:47:17
6. Jamie Riddle (RSA) – 1:48:33
7. Jack Sosinski (AUS) – 1:49:02
8. Brandon Copeland (AUS) – 1:49:44
9. Jarrod Osborne (AUS) – 1:50:49
10. Rory Thornhill (AUS) – 1:52:43

We’ll have more coverage from the anniversary event throughout this week.