She could barely have done more and her performance helped provide a fitting ending to the women’s T100 Triathlon World Tour season.
For Ashleigh Gentle bounced back from what had been a shattering defeat in her previous T100 race in Ibiza with an all-or-nothing display in Dubai.
In the end she was left empty-handed in terms of the race win and the title but she went incredibly close to both.
Asking the question
The equation was relatively simply for the Aussie, though hugely difficult. She needed to win and hope that Taylor Knibb – with three T100 wins out of three this season going into the finale – finished third or lower.
And Gentle looked to be fulfilling her part of the bargain as she clung onto the front pack in the swim and then stayed within range of uber-biker Knibb.
It meant that she had just under three minutes to make up on the 18km run and she’d whittled that below a minute after 10km.
But the progress then stalled as Knibb responded. And the effort – plus the brutal heat and humidity – told late on as Gentle was reduced to a walk.
She was overhauled late on for second by Olympic silver medallist Julie Derron but had done so much to animate the race.
‘I gave it everything’
So no wonder mixed emotions when interviewed soon after as she admitted: “It’s still pretty fresh, but I went for the win and it was so painful!”
“I gave it everything and got third in the end but I’m proud of my effort. It is pretty brutal – when I wasn’t feeling too good and Derron just flew past me on the run, it was super soul-crushing, but I did what I could.”
It was a world away from the last time she faced Knibb, with the American effectively lapping her early on the run in Ibiza.
And this display potentially puts down a real marker for next year, with Gentle adding: “All the athletes that I’ve been racing this year have been motivating me and inspiring me in training.
“I feel like I’ve been applying myself more, better than I ever have, because the level of the women’s field is just getting better and better and just trying to keep up is pretty difficult.”
Taylor has just been dominating and when you’re racing an athlete like that, it is sometimes really difficult to truly believe that you can beat them.
“But I had this little fire in my belly… I have no reason to believe that I can beat her, but I’m on the start line and that means I have got a chance, so I just had to believe that. I didn’t beat her but feel like I was a step closer and did everything I could to try and get there.”
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