Brings up a question I have had for awhile. In a chip timed race during a close finish, what should I be trying get across the line first? My ankle transponder over the pad, or any body part over the line?

I have a pair of those same Puma racing flats from a shoe test. Really comfortable.

Who's left fist is that? I suppose the winner's...

I'm more worried about Puma Boy's left ankle than I am with Red Bull's left hand.

Is that red bulls swim cap that he forgot to take off? or is that a new do rag?

I believe I can answer that. I was in a race this year where I was in an all out sprint finish for the win, and I intentionally threw my transponder foot over the line by doing a quick step near the line. The guy next to me believed he beat me, but apparently my name came out on top, even though we had the same time. He went to the timers, and they told him that my chip came across 1/1000 of a second before his.. I didn't know that they were that close, but it was the chip time that decided the place. I would have to guess that our finish was the closest ever recorded in triathlon history......

WOW. That is Reto Hug and Sven Riederer. These guys race against each other quite a bit here in Switzerland and I get the impression they don't like each other much. On Reto's webpage www.retohug.ch he was moaning a few months ago how Sven won a sprint because he drafted (in the run as it was a little windy) off people he was lapping to conserve energy and thus could out sprint him (he arguement was that the race conditions weren't 100% fair for each competitor). He's also said something along the lines of "this is what some people consider sportsmanship" to the recent sprint finish as apparently Sven tried to block him.

Here is a video of it btw: click here (I haven't watched it yet).

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Searching for the bliss of ultimate exertion.

The winner of ITU WC in Hamburg was a Filip Ospaly of the Czech Republic. The Swiss Reto Hug and Sven Riederer sprinted also for the win. But the 'crossed' their legs in the only 2m wide finish channel and fell.
ITU president already said in a interview that the channel must be 5m for the worlds in 06 in Hamburg.

http://www.triathlon.org/zpg/znews-dtl.php?src=newsPhotofinishinHamburgfrwx_image_0.jpg&keep=sh&nwsid=421&title=Large+picture

callidus: I think Hug and Riederer 'spoke' together in early summer and are now more 'friends' (or at least not foes anymore). I watched the race in Zug were Riederer run behind another athlete from his team (who was one lap behind) and finally could close the gap to Hug and win.

Felix

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http://www.weilenmann.ch.vu

Hi Felix, I hope your prep for IMC is going well. I looked today on www.retohug.ch and found this sentence - I get the impression they're still not really good friends...

"Endlich gibt es Bilder, die beweisen, wie gewisse Leuten den Sportgeist sehen. Der Einlaufkanal war breit genug für eine faire Entscheidung" - Reto Hug

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Searching for the bliss of ultimate exertion.

This sounds different than what I heard before. Too bad that they fight each other instead of working together (like Marcau/Riederer in Athen).

IMC prep is going well. I had to great OD in Solothurn and Nyon.

Felix

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http://www.weilenmann.ch.vu

gettyimages.com has some nice pics too

Great picture. Great action. Thanks for sharing.

Gee, all I hear, here and elsewhere is that ITU racing is boring! How can a finish like this be in any way boring.

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

In a chip timed race, it's which chip is registered first at the finish line. There is no finish line camera to show whose body was first.

In a local sprint Tri this spring we had a "dead heat" finish. One athlete literally dove head first across the line in an effort to win the "photo finish", but the other jumped feet first. I am sure a photo would have placed the first athlete ahead, but his ankle was trailing. The second athlete's feet crossed first and he won the race. I believe the timer split was :005 of a second difference.

Support Crew

yeah, this was an absolutely incredible race - i was at first a bit surprised that nobody here had mentioned anything. check the splits - they're absolutely unreal. this race made something like the Mano-a-Mano (which i was really excited about) look boring as a box of hair.

guess this site is still pro-ironman and ardently anti-ITU.

-mike

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/