GENTLE’S SACRIFICE FOR TEAM
ASHLEIGH Gentle has revealed she sacrificed her individual race in a bid to try to help Australia defend its mixed relay world title in Hamburg.
The Gold Coast triathlete pulled out of the elite women’s race at the Hamburg leg of the World Triathlon Series on Saturday at the beginning of the run.
The strategic move wasn’t enough to inspire Australia to back-to-back world titles, with France dominating the field to win gold as the team from Down Under secured silver.
Gentle was outside the top 25 and 1 minute and 38 seconds down on the leaders going into the final leg of the individual 750 swim, 20km bike and 5km run.
The 27-year-old revealed she received instruction from Triathlon Australia officials to pull out of the race in order to stay fresh for the mixed relay the next day.
“I was having a bad day at WTS Hamburg but I was OK, so under normal circumstances I would never usually ‘just DNF’,” Gentle told her social media followers before joining Aaron Royle, Natalie Van Coevorden and Jake Birtwhistle in the relay team.
“Under instruction from (Triathlon Australia), I pulled out near the start of the run to save myself for the mixed relay World Championships.
“In the moment I was ashamed and upset to be standing on the sideline watching the race continue, but I wasn’t going to be able to run up to a position I came here to achieve.
“It was time to put my pride aside and think of the team which I (was) representing.”
Gentle was the third starter in the relay and began her leg of the 300m swim, 7km bike ride and 1.7km run course in seventh.
The renowned runner lost three seconds on leaders France in her leg but lifted Australia to fifth before Birtwhistle produced the second-fastest final leg to guide the country to second overall.