so much for training in a volcano.....sorry about sw

I see your point but it just seems to make it less 'Olympic' to have changed the distance. But it has always bothered me when a race was not the adverstised distance - either short or long - and am a bit shocked to see it so for the biggest stage in sport.

Personally, I'm happy so long as they are truthful with the actual distances. No two courses are the same anyway.

It was very cool that Simon Whitfield called in from London UK and wished the competitors good luck....just before the Typhoon like storm blew in. Amazing that the guy would take time out of his Olympic prep to call into the local race in his home town.

All class!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I just don't buy that though. The Marathon found it's way back just fine to the start (after 3.2 laps) to be the correct distance. The triathlon bike course was a looping out and back. They could have sliced it down to 6 laps and slightly extended it at the far end.

I hear ya on local events (though, really, I don't) - but we're talking the Olympics here. If not a place for getting the distance standardized - why bother at all?

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My tiny little slice of the internets: dcrainmaker.com

I agree when we have the threads about folks complaining that a AG course is not accurate to the "Olympic" distance, all we need to say now is London and we no longer have to worry about it. Clearly there is no accurate "Olympic" distance for racing.

.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

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Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

The only thing I would say though is that there really isnt a "standard" for the distances like there is in marathon racing. Let me rephase, there is "standard" distances obviously but there isnt this huge idea about comparing race A to race B (marathon races are always compared to WR times, etc, but you never hear about how ITU races are on pace for a record, etc.). Go look at ITU Kitzbuhl, and I think that has a long bike leg as well. It just kinda is what it is (maybe that's a bad reason/excuse). There really are no ITU time "records", or atleast none that I've never seen talked about.

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@brooksdoughtie
USAT-L2,Y&J; USAC-L2
http://www.aomultisport.com

  

So glad others feel the same. Since I started in triathlon in 1991 it was the 'international' distance and then the 'olympic' distance = 1.5S, 40K B, 10K run. Just think it is not good for the sport to not remain faithful to the distance as they do in other olympic events.

Like Neil Young sang:

Better to burn out, than fade away.....

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

It's like IMNZ. In the past few years (2006 and 2012) the race has been shortened to around 1/2 distance. Those are the only two years Cameron Brown hasn't won it in the last 12? years?

Getting the distances right is important. Some athletes come from behind and others have a sprint finish. It the course is short or long, by even a little bit, the wrong athlete (for lack of a better term) may win the race.

At an event like the Olympics, there is NO excuse for getting it wrong? Imagine having the swimming pool being too short or long? Or the 20kg weights for the weightlifters being too heavy? Yeah right. They got the marathon right so surely to all that's Holy, they could get the Tri course the right length.

With modern technology, they should be able to get the finish line with millimetres of being exact!

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

I know I am being picky, just don't understand why triathlon doesn't stick to accurate measurements for the courses - other sports do.


They keep changing the distances because they can't measure the courses properly. This gives them an out so they can just claim it is a different length course today.

As a Canadian and a friend, I was gutted for Simon Whitfield. He's done so much for the sport, for the country, for himself and for his family. Tough way to go out and end it all.


Agreed.

I also don't understand some of the comments on this thread in regard to Simon. A few posters, they know who they are, seem almost giddy that Simon went down and I just don't get that kind of response towards anyone, let alone someone of Simon's character.

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That is because you area decent bloke.Just like in the general population there are many here who revel in the misfortunes of others.

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Thank you for this post, my feelings exactly.

Some athletes come from behind and others have a sprint finish. It the course is short or long, by even a little bit, the wrong athlete (for lack of a better term) may win the race.

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Just for accuracy and clarification, I dont think they ever stated that it was a 40k bike. I think all the national federations/athlete/coaches knew what the distance was on the bike (they had the test event in 2011).

Now, should it have been 40k, yeah probaly, but just wanted people to know that there was no surprises here. It was well established before hand what the actual distance was going to be used.

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@brooksdoughtie
USAT-L2,Y&J; USAC-L2
http://www.aomultisport.com

From a purely triathlon perspective, you could have made a longer lap and so cut it to 6 laps. But how much further would this have disrupted London? When designing a course, there are far more things to take into account than simply the length of the course; What will the effect be on traffic, emergency access, access to businesses, security and crown control to name a few.

Setting the marathon easy, since you can adjust the positioning of the start/finish to get the correct distance. You cannot move the lake or adjust the road layout, you have to work with what you have got.

Actually Jonny has had the best x country result. 5th this year in the Inter Countries. Which isn't the National but is more competitive than the National because only 6 from each country (state) race. Ali raced U23 European a while ago and didn't have a great run 49th (somewhere around) there. I don't think either of them are under any illustration that they could be internationally competitive runners. In an interview with the BBC Ali said it well that that we extra 90/120 seconds they would need to be competitive is a lot of work.

Anyway why change they are pretty good at triathlon.

I would love to see the Brownlee's and Sprigg race 70.3 WC. I don't see why Sprigg wouldn't win. With the Brownlee's I don't know if they have TT bikes but it would make for an interesting race.

I wonder if they will do a couple of the big money races in the states now to cash in?

Ok, just so everyone's clear.

The new London bike course was implemented at last year's WCS race. It was made longer to allow for the bit going past Buckingham Palace.

Everyone knew it was a 43km course. If you follow ITU racing at all you would have known for over 12 months that this year's Olympics was going to have a 43km bike course.

What does it matter? Everyone raced the same course, AB just raced it a whole lot better than everyone else.

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Yep,I don't get all the fuss but then again this is ST and even when things are presented in black and white a blanket of grey gets tossed over the discussion..

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i think that maybe the fanatical attachment to the 1.5-40-10 is a uniquely american obsession. i'm looking at setting up my racing season and the distances so far look like this:

intervall duathlon: 4k run - 16k bike - 4k run - 16k bike - 4k run
inferno triathlon: 3.1k swim - 93k bike - 30k mountain bike - 25k run
schaffhausen triathlon: 5k swim - 59k bike - 15k run
monaco triathlon: 1k swim - 100k bike - 10k run

the euros just seem to roll a little different, and after so many years in the sport i'm interesting in mixing it up. if i want a shot at my 10k PB i can strap on a GPS and go for it. but as an athlete my interest is much more in just being on the start line and trying out a different/beautiful/tough race and testing myself against the competition.

i'll make the important distinction here of races who incorrectly advertise their distances. that's NOT what happened in london, but does happen all the bloody time in triathlon, even at the highest levels. witness lessing and co setting several single-sport world records at World's in cleveland, or carol montgomery (maybe) getting robbed of a medal by a short run at worlds in oz. that's inexcusable.

-mike

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

pardon my ignorance can someone please explain something to me Im new at all this. AB ran the 10km in 29:07 with a walk at the end after doing a 1.5km swim and 43km ride, the 10k track race was won in like 27mins with no swim or bike before hand?????

Could AB not have won the 10km track race considering he would be fresh without having to do the swim and bike first would he be able take these guys out??? To me seems like he could gain 2mins without having to do the swim and bike first surely that took some energy out of him?

thanks

The simple answer is no. The track 10km was a slow tactical affair until the closing laps. AB was going flat out from the start on his run. The reason they are top triathletes is that they can run very close to their best during the tri. He could run quicker, but probably not as quick as he would be required to run in a track race. He has admitted this himself in interviews.

 
The wifes best for 10km when at her best was 33 and change whether stand alone or off the bike - give or take a handful of seconds.

There's not alot in it at the real top end.

So if you're imagining AB being dropped onto the start line of the 10,000, with the same training he'd done prior, you wouldn't see the 2 min improvement you're eluding to.

However, if he trained solely for track you would surely see improvement on his 10,000m time. How much though I have no idea.

I don't think anyone's surprised by it, as you said, it's the same course. Everyone's simply saying it's silly. We wouldn't change the 10K run distance, would we?

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My tiny little slice of the internets: dcrainmaker.com

It's not an American Obsession. There are anal retentive distance geeks all around the world. I am proud to include myself in that group, and I'm a Kiwi/Canadian.

Marathons are 42.2km. Oly tri's are 1.5km, 40km bike, 10km! simple and relatively easy to get it right.

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"