T100 London results 2024: Ashleigh Gentle is BACK as homecoming day ends in disappointment for Lucy Charles-Barclay

Ashleigh Gentle bounced back to winning ways in terrific style by running down Imogen Simmonds for a superb T100 victory in London on Saturday.

The Aussie superstar, who had finished a disappointing seventh behind Taylor Knibb in San Francisco last month, produced a blistering trademark run to haul in the impressive Swiss star in front of a passionate crowd in the UK capital. Home favourite Kat Matthews claimed the final podium position by winning a terrific battle with Germany’s Laura Philipp.

The day ended in disappointment for Britain’s IRONMAN World Champion Lucy Charles-Barclay though as she was forced to DNF during the run after leading late into the bike leg. German superstar Anne Haug meanwhile failed to make a pro triathlon podium for the first time since 2018.

Swim – LCB and Coldwell blast off

It is not often that Charles-Barclay has company at the front after a professional triathlon swim. But in London’s Docklands on Saturday, she was joined at the head of the field by fellow Brit Sophie Coldwell – a wild card here after that agonising failure to make the Great Britain Olympic team for Paris 2024.

The pair headed inside and up the steps into the ExCeL Arena for the unusual indoor transition, and emerged out onto the bike leg to the screams of the local fans. It was Sophie who held the slightest of edges coming out of T1.

American star Haley Chura was third out of the water just under a minute behind the leaders, with Simmonds, Gentle and India Lee all bracketed together just under two minutes behind Charles-Barclay and Coldwell.

Further down the field another big gun in Haug was just under three minutes off the pace, just behind Matthews.

Bike – Simmonds takes charge

Charles-Barclay and Coldwell settled down to cut out the pace at the front of the field, with LCB heading affairs and Sophie in close order behind. Simmonds and Gentle continued to remain around 90 seconds away in third and fourth.

Fifth was occupied by Lee while Philipp had rocketed through the field to sixth after exiting the water down in 18th. Matthews was seventh and making inroads on the leaders too, while Haug had lost a little time in dropping to more than three minutes off the pace. It appeared that astonishing record-breaking day at Challenge Roth earlier this month was now taking its toll.

Elsewhere T100 almost dished out its first ever drafting penalty with Brit Lucy Byram (three minutes) first appearing to pay the price as the officials backed up the pre-race talk that there would be no hiding place for any offenders. But then, minutes later, the ‘penalty’ was revoked. It was later reported by the PTO broadcast that RaceRanger tech would be stood down for the day due to GPS issues being caused by T1 being indoors. There is no decision yet on whether it will be operational for the men’s race tomorrow (Sunday July 28).

Charles-Barclay had upped the lead over Coldwell to 29 seconds as they moved towards the halfway stage of the 80km bike leg, with Simmonds just over a minute back in third and Gentle at +1:23. Then we had a group of five all closely matched at just over two minutes off the lead – made up of Philipp, Byram, Matthews, Lisa Norden and Lee. Haug meanwhile continued to lose ground with now more than four minutes separating her from Charles-Barclay.

Simmonds continued to make inroads on the leaders and she passed Coldwell for second as they moved into the second half of the leg, with the IRONMAN World Champion now holding an advantage of 38 seconds at the front. The Swiss star continued to close in and by the time they reached 60km, she was now looming large behind LCB.

Charles-Barclay was joined at the front and passed by Simmonds shortly after that 60km mark, with Gentle (+1:25) and Coldwell (+1:27) in third and fourth. Byram (+1:40) was the only other athlete less than two minutes off the pace, with that next group of four comprising Philipp, Lee, Matthews and Norden.

With just over 5km remaining on the bike Byram was capitalising on that reprieve from the officials as she passed Gentle for third, with the fading Coldwell now more than two minutes off the pace in fifth.

Simmonds was first into T2 thanks to a terrific 1:59:44 bike leg, and she had a 22-second lead over Charles-Barclay with all to play for on the run. Byram was a minute further back in third, with Gentle just under two minutes behind the leader in fourth. Philipp, Matthews, Coldwell, Lee, Norden and rounded out the top 10.

Haug meanwhile was way down in 13th position, and in real danger of that astonishing podium run dating back to 2018 ending at last. She was more than six minutes away from Byram in third.

Run – It’s Gentle all the way as LCB is a DNF

Simmonds looked really good as she set out on the final 18km, striding out impressively and immediately starting to increase the gap over Charles-Barclay in second. Gentle meanwhile was cutting into the gap significantly as she moved smoothly past Byram into third. Matthews was up into fifth as she too started to utilise her run prowess.

Imogen continued to look good out front, but the big danger by now was clearly going to come from Gentle. The gap between first and third was down to just over a minute at the 5km mark of the run. By 7km that gap was only 28 seconds and it was between first and second with Charles-Barclay sadly now a DNF.

Gentle’s charge was utterly relentless and soon we got the inevitable pass on Simmonds as she then stretched clear to put the result beyond doubt. With Simmonds continuing to remain consistent, the main interest was in who would grab the final podium spot. With a third of that 18km run remaining, it was Byram just ahead of the duelling Matthews and Philipp.

It was Matthews who dug deep to take control of the battle for third with just over 4km remaining, moving into the final podium spot and with a decisive surge as Philipp and Byram were forced to give best the British star. So good was the final surge from Kat, she almost managed to haul in Simmonds for second.