Can you ellaborate on what this is ? It sounds good though....

http://globaltrigroup.com/

What's GTG, Mike? The proposals seem a very good starting point, although testing would have to be improved some to get results, nearer to if not, on the day.

I wholeheartedly embrace these changes although I cannot forse the day when #4 is able to avoid the NK situation of last October.

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"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

This looks to be the official announcement that Ironman races will no longer run under USAT sanction or rules. You'll note from their website that GTG was started by the parent company of Ironman (WTC), so they are now part of the same family.

You'll note from their website that GTG was started by the parent company of Ironman (WTC), so they are now part of the same family.



So back to my original question, who/what is GTG?

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"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

the idea is good, but how are they going to deal with doping BEFORE the race?
is it the 'you have to come showing you're clean' thing that was mentioned a while back?
if so, what prevents an athlete from showing clean doping test and pop amphetamines at the start of the marathon, or antipain meds like vicodine?? ok, it's not EPO, but it certainly has an effect.
I don't see how they can deal with doping stuff before the race...

Interesting. I had heard about this brewing some time ago.

I suspect that it will stir up a bit of a hornets nest. There seem to be positives and negatives with this.

1. It always has to be kept in mind that the WTC is a for-profit business. There is absolutly nothing wrong with this, but it is hard to be seen as completely independant when you make up your own rules and attemp to enforce them on your own.

2. I agree that the USAT rule enforcement had been draconion. I am not against enforcment of the rules, but I suspect that this was starting to chew up more and more time and energy on the part of WTC/IMNA offcials having to deal with over zealous USAT offcials and a stream of athlete appeals afterwards for what in reality were in many cases frivolous infractions that did not impact race out-come or anyone's safty.

3. On the drug front, this is a positive move, but note point#1. I suspect that a number of athletes who compete almost exclusivly on the IM circuit fall into a bit of a grey area when it comes to National Federation Membership, drug testing and other administrative issues. This is not meant to be accusitory in any way, but as it stood before these changes, an athlete could race and win thousands of dollars at various IM events and not be tested all year either at races or by their own federation at events or in out-of-competition testing.

4. I find it intriguing that this has been brought forward by race managment and not the other way around - from the athletes, the pros in particular. For the most part they seem to have been mute on this whole issue when in fact this is a real serious issue that impacts their livelyhood directly. Although, perhaps there has been more athlete involvment behind the scenes that we are currently not aware of.

On the balance, I think this is a positive development, but it concerns me that we have inserted another layer of sports administration, that is privatly run. Time will tell.

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog