Ashleigh Gentle Begins Next Stage Of Career at Oceanside
Two-time Olympian Ashleigh Gentle is kicking off the next stage of her triathlon career this weekend, lining up for IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside in California.
Gentle, who represented Australia at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, recently announced that she’d be focusing her efforts on middle-distance triathlon, with Oceanside on Saturday her first IRONMAN 70.3 race since making the move.
“I’ve done two IRONMAN 70.3 races before, one at the end of 2019 in China to try and qualify for the World Championships in Taupō which is now in 2024 which is hard to believe, and then the one I did on the Sunshine Coast in 2020,” said Gentle. “I did IRONMAN 70.3 Sunshine Coast more just because it was an opportunity and I was just happy to be involved in an event in Queensland where it could happen, so I feel like I’m a lot better prepared for this one even though it’s still early in the season, a lot better prepared than any others that I’ve done. I feel like this is what I’ve decided to do now, it’s the start of that new chapter I suppose.”
Gentle’s last major Olympic distance race was the Noosa Triathlon last October, where she claimed a record eighth title. Gentle arrived in America a few weeks back, winning a shorter race in Florida before setting up her training base in Arizona, with her sights now firmly set on IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside.
“I’m feeling good, and I’m just excited to get to that start line after the last couple of years. It just feels nice to be able to be here and be travelling again, I just feel pretty grateful to be honest,” said Gentle. “Everything has been going really smoothly here in Tucson after racing in Florida a few weeks ago, my prep has been going really well and it will just be a great opportunity to test myself against a great field this weekend.”
IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside features one of the strongest women’s professional fields the event has ever seen, with the line up including former IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 World Champions and Olympic Games gold medallists.
Highlighting the field is four-time IRONMAN World Champion and five-time IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion Daniela Ryf, multiple IRONMAN race winner Skye Moench, 2016 IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion Holly Lawrence and Olympian and 2021 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship podium finisher Taylor Knibb.
“I’m really excited, I think it’s a great opportunity to race some of the best in the world over this distance,” said Gentle. “I think the women’s race is going to be really dynamic in a sense that you have some really great women prepping for the IRONMAN World Championship in St. George, you have middle distance specialists and you have past winners of Oceanside and IRONMAN 70.3 World Champions and podium finishers and also someone like Taylor Knibb who is still short course but obviously was on the podium last year at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship which adds an interesting dynamic to the race.
“I honestly don’t know how I’m going to stack up but it’s the perfect opportunity to see how I do so I’m just excited to be able to race against a lot of girls who are a little bit stronger at that distance,” she said.
IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside is the start of a busy year for Gentle, who is set to line up in races across the world.
“After Oceanside I head back home to Australia, I have a few important celebrations, my best friend of 25 years is getting married, a few things that are really important to me outside of triathlon,” she said. “I’m going to head home for that and then head to Europe in mid-May to start the next part of the season and do a few races in Europe, I’m pretty excited that the plans are slowly coming together and I can see a bit of a race schedule starting to form, it’s definitely motivating.”
IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside will be broadcast live on Outside Watch from 12.00am on Sunday April 3 AEDT.
