Sydney continued...

I had 5 weeks from Devonport to Sydney, I was thinking it was a fair amount of time although it definitely blew past very quickly. In this time, some mishaps occured but it's something I'm slowly getting on top of. I was a little anxious heading into Sydney, mainly due to my slightly mixed preparation. I carried some confidence from my swim and cycling sessions so once the horn went off I just let the adrenalin flow. Being in a relativey large chase pack I had some strong cyclists around me and I tried desperately to stay amongst the front group of girls. Once we caught the lead pack, it was quite difficult to move up and there was some wheel touching and close calls but I ended up moving around the outside to better position myself. If you don't have the skills and confidence within these groups you can easily be pushed around and find yourself midpack. My positioning coming into t2 wasn't ideal, but not too bad.

The first 1km of the run, everyone seems to be running way too fast!! I settled into my pace and tried to catch onto the front 10 or so girls and as soon as I thought I might be able to eventually tack on the back...they were gone :)  I sat in about 7th position for most of 10km run but had a few girls sitting on my shoulder and all but one ended up passing me within the last km. Thanks to my parents, brothers and a friend who flew from the Coast to cheer me from the sidelines, they were so loud and my eldest brother in particular got very passionate. (please leave youre shirt on next time ;)

I was very satisfied with my race and have once again have learnt a lot. I'm looking forward to continuing to string  together some good training and get my run load and intensity back to normal. A huge congratulations to team mate Erin Densham,  what an amazing race by her and I'm very happy to finish 2nd AUS chick behind her.

The day after the race the Olympic Shadow Squad were treated to a sailing trip through the Sydney Harbour. We took in some nice views but there wasn't much wind which meant for a pretty slow cruise through waters...

T

Later that eventing we ditched the jackets and trackpants for cocktail dresses for Triathlon Australia Annual Awards Dinner where I was very grateful to receive the "Chris Hewitt Emerging Athlete" award.

Thanks for reading, San Diego is next for me. Ive never been to America before so to say I'm excited would be an understatement.

Sydney

I have just arrrived home from Sydney after competing at the first World Triathlon Series (no longer called World Championship Series) event for 2012 and major selection race for the London Olympics. With a mixed preparation I was very happy to finish 10th overall and 2nd Aussie behind the winner Erin Densham. That makes it 3 top 10's in 3 World Triathlon Series starts (London, Lausanne, Sydney) which im pretty stoked about ;) I haven't seen so much as a picture which would suggest I even raced Sydney but my family and a friend flew from the Gold Coast to watch me, I had lots of friends cheering  from their tv sets and I received many kind messages....I am so grateful!!

Stay tuned, a proper blog of the weekend is to come.

GC Commonwealth Games

On Tuesday the 3rd of April it was exactly 6 years to the opening ceremony of the 2018 Commonwealth Games. We had  a small photo shoot at the Southport Pool and I was Joined by London Olympic swimmers Brenton Rickard and Cameron McAvoy, Olympic Cyclist Sara Carrigan and one of the Commonwealth Games Ambassadors.  I have a new found respect for the sport of diving as we climbed the stairs to take some pictures from the 10m platform in order to capture the amazing Gold Coast backdrop. It definately looks like a big leap down to the water and I'll remember that when I watch that event at the Olympics! 

It's extremely exciting for an athlete like myself to know that I have a major championship in my hometown in 6 years time, I'll be 27years old and hopefully competing in front of my friends and family. I definately didn't think that when I was taking a few extra pictures at Southport park that I would end up on the front page of the Bulletin!

Gold Coast Bulletin

Helping out at the 'Superkidz' race at Mooloolaba Triathlon weekend

Never too much open water practice

I'm flying to Sydney today for the first round of the World Champ Series. For all the Aussies, the race is live on On HD....the women jumping in the bay at 7.36am so tune in. I've also taken a big step in the world of social media and caved into Twitter, follow me if you like https://twitter.com/#!/AshleighGentle   I'm not too boring ;)