Just call her the Queen of the T100 distance
Ashleigh Gentle runs her way to another PTO win at T100 London

As she is known to do, Ashleigh Gentle stole the show from the local heroes, but, as is also the norm for the popular Aussie, the huge crowds on hand were thrilled to see her take T100 London. While she ran her way up through the field (again, as is the norm for Gentle), it was pretty obvious that she was in control of the race much earlier thanks to her excellent swim and bike splits that put her in an excellent position to dominate the day.
Charles-Barclay leads the swim
There were no surprises through the first leg of the race as the hometown hero, Lucy Charles-Barclay, led the women through the swim. She did have company, though, in the form of draft-legal specialist Sophie Coldwell (GBR), who accepted a wild-card slot for the race after not being selected for the British Olympic squad for Paris. Switzerland’s Imogen Simmonds and Gentle hit T1 about 1:43 down, with a big group of contenders including Kat Matthews (GBR), Anne Haug (GER) and Chelsea Sodaro (USA) coming out of the water about a minute behind.
Once on the bike it didn’t take long before Charles-Barclay was out in front with Coldwell hanging on and looking strong. Simmonds and Gentle were also riding strong, though, and kept the leaders in check through the early stages of the bike, with Matthews, her countryman Lucy Byram, Laura Philipp and Lisa Norden also riding strong in a group another minute or so behind.
Simmonds would eventually break clear of Gentle and push to the front, taking the lead from Charles-Barclay, who was starting to feel the effects of a tough build up to the race. (We’ll have more on that later.) Simmonds would lead into T2, with Charles-Barclay about 20 seconds back, with Byram at 1:24 and Gentle another 30 seconds behind her. Matthews, India Lee (GBR), Laura Philipp (GER) and Coldwell all finished the bike about three minutes behind the lead.
Gentle cruises to the win
There are very few women on the planet who can hold Ashleigh Gentle off over 18 km with a two minute lead, and none of them got off the bike ahead of the Australian star, who has truly made the 100 km distance her own since the dawn of the PTO Open era. She ran to wins at the PTO Canadian and US Opens two years ago, was second at both the European and US Open events last year before winning the Asian Open race in Singapore, then started her season with a win at T100 Singapore this year.
In other words, there were no surprises as Gentle quickly ran to the front of the race, relieving Simmonds of her lead before the halfway point of the run and never looking back as she cruised to yet another win over this 100 km distance in a time of 3:36:17. Simmonds would hang on for second (3:39:11), with Matthews taking a close third (3:39:29), with Philipp missing the podium by just over 30 seconds in 3:40:02. Byram would take fifth (3:40:26), holding off a fast charging Tamara Jewett, who posted the day’s fastest run split (1:04:29 – over 90 seconds quicker than Gentle!) to finish sixth in 3:40:49.
Coldwell made her long-distance debut in style, finishing seventh (3:42:22) one spot ahead of 2022 Ironman world champ Chelsea Sodaro (3:42:55). India Lee would take ninth (3:44:23), Emma Pallant-Browne was 10th (3:46:21) and Anne Haug, fresh off that blazing 8:02 in Roth a few weeks ago, managed to get to the line despite being sick (both before and during the race) in 11th in a time of 3:46:39.