Ashleigh Gentle may have made the run leg of the Singapore T100 look easy – but she revealed afterwards that it felt anything but that.

The Aussie made it a record four PTO victories with the win in a hot and humid Singapore in what was her first race of the season.

She made up more than five minutes on the run to cut down long-time leader Lucy Charles-Barclay, overtaking with just over 4km remaining and going on to put more than a minute and a half between herself and the reigning IRONMAN World Champion.

Same result – but very different feelings

But speaking to TRI247’s Jenny Lucas-Hill shortly after crossing the line, she underlined just what she’d had to go through to repeat last season’s triumph in Singapore.

She said: “I was able to pull out a race that surprised me a little bit and am obviously very, very happy.

“But it was very different to last year where I really found my flow and felt really comfortable and strong. Whereas this year it was very gritty and hard.

So the same result but the feelings to get that result were just very different.

“It’s just one of those times that as an athlete you’ve really got to persevere, no matter what the circumstances. And I’m just really glad that I was able to stay composed and still perform at a really high level.”

‘Exciting’ times ahead

Charles-Barclay had led after both the swim and bike and Gentle added: “Lucy was amazing and made it really difficult for me.

“It feels a bit surreal to be honest. It’s probably not how I thought I would start the year.

“I was thinking maybe I should have done a race before this one because it was so brutal but I just tried to stay focussed and fight to the very end.”

And speaking on the live broadcast, Gentle talked about her position as pre-race favourite: “I guess coming in here there was a lot of expectation after winning last year and I just wasn’t so sure how I’d do.

“But I think that’s part of being a professional athlete. You have to lay it all out there and take the good with the bad.

“I feel very happy that I was able to put a really strong performance together today and come out with the win, but I also feel like I’ve got so much more to give, so I guess once I recover from this one, it’ll be exciting to look ahead.”