Triathlon Ireland’s Olympic hopeful Gavin Noble faces stiff competition at the ITU Mooloolaba World Cup in Australia this Saturday 24th.
68 athletes take to the beach at 3pm local time for the 1500m open water swim, 40km bike and 10km run. Among the starters is 3 time winner Brad Kahlefeldt, world no. 6 David Hauss, world no. 7 Laurent Vidal and the man most likely to join the Brownlee brothers on the GB Squad for London, Will Clarke.
Noble from Enniskillen currently holds the 42nd slot out of 55 on the Olympic simulation ranking after an excellent 5th place finish in Barbados in mid February followed by a solid top 20 finish a week later in Cape Town.
Noble had picked up a slight injury which affected his running but is getting back on track over the past few weeks. He has been training in the Triathlon Mecca of Stellenbosch, South Africa alongside the likes of Olympic Champion Jan Frodeno and 2010 World Champion Javier Gomez.
Triathlon Ireland High Performance Coach, Chris Jones commented “Gavin has been managing the injury very well. He’s a little bit behind in his running preparations but has been swimming and biking well and is getting in some good aerobic run training.”
“The aim for this weekend is simple. He’s looking to defend his Olympic ranking by finishing in the top half of the field.”
