Ash’s strength test
Gold Coaster plans to keep best season rolling in Leeds
tom.boswell@news.com.au out to Spain to compete in Europe for four months.
“I came back to try to do a bit more gym,” Gentle said.
“It was good to put those pieces together and hatch out a plan in terms of the strength and conditioning side of things before I left.”
Gentle has never raced in an ITU Leeds event where athletes could be forced to navigate through more wet conditions than they faced in Yokohama last month.
The Yokohama rain and the return of world champion Flora Duffy broke open the Japanese race in which Gentle came from the back of the field to finish in sixth after the fastest 10km run split.
Another tough women’s field could mean more of the same in Leeds – and Gentle said she was ready for the tactical battle ahead. ASHLEIGH GENTLE
“I was hoping for some nice, sunny races before we headed to Leeds but it looks like it might be a wet world series,” she said.
“You just have to be confident going in that you have done the right thing.
“We train in the rain and deal with it on race day as well. You have to take the confidence that you have got throughout the years of training in the rain and remain calm.
“If you start to panic and worry then that is when you get a bit rigid or apply too much pressure on the brakes and that is ultimately when you are going to slide out and cost yourself a race.”
Gentle said all the pressure was on New Zealander Andrea Hewitt, who won the opening two WTS races in Abu Dhabi and Gold Coast, and Bermuda’s Duffy who won in Yokohama.
“Andrea came out and was just on fire and someone like her is so consistent but also Flora Duffy is the reigning world champion and is there for a reason,” she said.
“Someone like her is always going to be a huge threat and someone who should probably wear all the pressure and deservingly so.
“She’s proven she can race under very different conditions at any different time.
“A lot of us are trying to chip away and focus on what we can focus on and hopefully inch closer to Flora.”