Noble effort keeps Gavin feeling good

Long after he swam, cycled and ran his way around Hyde Park and its environs, Irish triathlete Gavin Noble proved he is equally impressive standing still.

The 31-year-old had just finished 23rd of a 55-man field in the Olympic Games recording a time of 1:49.47 and the wall of microphones and camera crews awaiting was just as he imagined it would be.

“I’ve already had this conversation a 100 million times with reporters in my mind,” he said of his first Olympic experience.

“It has been a dream for me. I spent four hours at the venue before the race walking around with goosebumps. It has been an amazing experience. These are the best 55 guys in the world so it is a credit to my team to get me here to the start line. It hasn’t been easy.

“I’m happy enough, I look back on it with positivity and maybe next week we will have a review and see how we can improve.”

There will be few improvements needed. Noble produced a tremendous swim and was ranked in 15th following the 1,500m in the cold waters of Serpentine Lake.

Better was to come on the bike as the Enniskillen man quickly established himself in the lead bunch alongside home favourites, the Brownlee brothers, Alistair and Jonny. He even briefly led the race as the breakaway pulled clear of the chasing pack.

He was 11th overall entering the 10k run and the excursions of the day coupled with a knee injury took its toll as his slipped to 23rd. The knee problems had impacted on his training and resulted in limited running work. However Noble isn’t a man for making excuses, even though the problem caused him concerns on Monday night.

“You have to race intelligent. I don’t want to stand here and give any negative thoughts away.

“It hasn’t been easy for anyone to get here and it hasn’t been easy for me. Even on Monday night I ran around Hyde Park and I had a bit of trouble and had to walk home. When you have a couple of hundred thousand shouting for you, you don’t really notice the injury.”

And it was the sight the sizeable Irish contingent pressed up against the barriers that proved inspirational as he made a move in the bike section.

“There were so many Irish out there. They were not coming to look for you, they want to see you in the front pack and that is a nice feeling. It was nice to contribute to the work of that lead pack and to keep the pace high.”

Noble admitted he wasn’t overawed by the Olympic experience explaining: “It is the same race and the same guys that you see every time in competition. You go into the briefing four days later and you realise that amongst all the hoo ha it is the same 55 guys competing and there are no real surprises.

“Everyone knows their role and almost knows their positions. There are three guys who are very far ahead of the rest of the world. I am one of 52 guys who didn’t win a medal but I am going to walk away with my head held high. 23rd is nothing to shout about but I am an Olympian and I did my best on the day.”

Alistair Brownlee became Great Britain’s first Olympic champion in the event with his brother Jonny claiming the bronze. Spain’s Javier Gomez took silver.