Australian professional triathletes Ashleigh Gentle and Josh Amberger made it a weekend to remember in Malaysia as the duo, who are married, took out the women’s and men’s titles at the 2023 IRONMAN 70.3 Asia Pacific Championship Langkawi.
The Brisbane-based couple tied the knot almost a year ago, with this event being the first time Amberger and Gentle have won the same race as husband and wife.
“We got married last year and we’ve been out on the triathlon circuit together for over a decade but the last two years we’ve been able to share some race experiences together, so to be able to come here and win this Asia Pacific Championship title, taking two titles to one household in Australia, it feels pretty good,” said Gentle.
“Most days we train together,” Josh added. “We’ve got the same coach, sometimes our programme differs a little bit but yeah, we spend a lot of time together, pretty much most of the day to be honest so it’s working out so far and we’re still improving and getting better, and still married so that’s so good.”
As has been the case all year, Gentle demonstrated her class across all three disciplines to take the tape in 4:10:17, nearly six minutes ahead of New Zealand’s Amelia Watkinson in second. Lottie Lucas (UAE) rounded out the women’s podium in third.
Gentle was second out of the water after the 1.9km swim, three seconds down from Julie Iemmolo (FRA). Thanks to a fast transition Watkinson was the first female out onto the bike with Gentle, Lucas, and Iemmolo hot on her heels. The quarter then rode strongly together as a lead group over the 90km bike, with just seconds separating the women as they entered transition for the second time.
Once on the run course however, it didn’t take Gentle long to exert her dominance and open up a gap between herself and those chasing. Gentle continued to pull away from second placed Watkinson on her way to securing her second IRONMAN 70.3 title of the year.
In the professional men’s race, Amberger claimed victory in similarly impressive fashion and like Gentle, was part of the lead group for the majority of the race before running away to take the win.
“It was a really technical race, I lead out the swim and we had a large group of men with us I think seven or eight guys. The very first corner (on the bike) Anthony Costes, the Frenchman, he crashed, and it was a bit of a shock, so we kind of had to go easy for a little bit and just work out if the roads were slippery but no, it was pretty good. A few of us worked really well together but it wasn’t until the last 30 kilometres or last half an hour on the bike when we started really throwing down the attacks and dropping some athletes, so it was good to thin the field out a little bit,” said Amberger.
“I knew we had a large gap for the run and the podium was really up for grabs with the front three and I kind of just built into it, I let them go, I didn’t take the lead until 11 or 12 kilometres into the run. When I got to the lead, I felt really good and just wanted to push the advantage and I was able to seal the deal and run away with the run. I was really happy with my race today,” he said.
Amberger claimed today’s IRONMAN 70.3 Asia Pacific Championship Langkawi title in 3:50:47, over a minute ahead of Mike Phillips (NZL), with Kurt McDonald (AUS) in third.
As well as securing a podium finish, the top three male and female professional athletes qualified for the 2024 VinFast IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Taupo, New Zealand.
Today’s event marked a couple of significant milestones for triathlon in the region as Malaysia played host to the IRONMAN 70.3 Asia-Pacific Championship for the very first time and welcomed professional athletes back to Malaysian shores for the first time since 2019.
The picturesque Langkawi Island, with its breathtaking vistas and challenging terrain, provided the perfect backdrop for the event.
For more information and results on the IRONMAN 70.3 Asia Pacific Championship Langkawi visit https://www.ironman.com/im703-langkawi
MALE PRO:
1 Josh Amberger AUS 3:51:39
2 Mike Phillips NZL +1:37
3 Kurt McDonald AUS +3:47
4 Ben Hamilton NZL +5:42
5 James Teagle GBR +6:41
FEMALE PRO:
1 Ashleigh Gentle AUS 4:11:12
2 Amelia Watkinson NZL +5:46
3 Lottie Lucas ARE +9:47
4 Julie Iemmolo FRA +18:33
5 Kylie Simpson AUS +28:50