I think I've watched every second of coverage on triahlonlive. When I do long rides on the trainer I'll even watch the loop of previews...patiently waiting for the coverage to start.

Here is an interesting tidbit I just found out: Andy Potts is very likely going to represent team USA in the 2021 Olympics.

I'll explain how, but I thought someone might want to guess or perhaps someone else is aware. And so we are clear: as an athlete.

I’m guessing as an athlete guide or aid in the paraolympics?

yup. I don't know Andy's intention (at all) but he guided a blind athlete in Sarasota who is on the short list of Para Olympic hopefuls. I've done some guiding, it is an awesome thing to do and really quite difficult to do well.

There's actually a plentiful lot of ex-pros (or current pros who are on the back-end of their careers) who have moved to guiding. Michellie Jones probably being one of the better known ones, but Tim Don was doing some guiding if memory serves, as well as others such as Mark Buckingham (although he is probably best known in Duathlon circles, or as a training partner to the Brownlees, or as partner to Lucy Hall) just to name a few. It's really great to see some of them sticking around for a few years at the tail end to help the VI athletes, because it is really a difficult job to do well.

I didn't mean actual ITU points for selection. I meant he scored points with the Australian selectors. And as someone else mentioned in an earlier response, it may be especially important this year with limited qualifying opportunities.

Olympic qualifying period to restart from 1st May until 21st June: https://www.triathlon.org/...nkings_on_1_may_2021

6 races to count plus continental championships and a mixed team really qualifier over 8 weekends. Some people are going to be busy!

I don’t really understand it. Soccer, handball, tennis, cycling etc etc. is going on on the professional level. Heck, even long distance triathlon has started.

And then World Triathlon couldn’t get their shit together to continue Olympic Qualifying before May 1st.

I feel for the aspiring triathletes that have not yet earned enough points to go to Tokyo. They are gonna be so busy that even if they qualify, they won’t be on top form come Olympics.

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Morten Falk Størling
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Last year we bitched about ITU (wasn't WT yet) having a "world championship" that imo shouldnt have been classified as a world championship when they decided it at last moment and some athletes had travel disadvantages.

WT has their shit together, countries all over the world have very different travel requirements etc., and so instead of just allowing the races to "go on as planned" they created as fair of a process to also get athletes qualified, etc.


And WT is having events, they just aren't counting (so I guess technically they "aren't" hosting events). The US Florida swing happened just like the Aussie races, they just didn't "count" for real points.

ETA: We are dealing with a world fucking pandemic that has countries all over the world with different standards on how to operate, and we are a sport that has essentially zero media presence, and so sitting in a country for a 2-3 weeks or a month to win $10k really isn't operational like Tennis where they are playing for millions of dollars and a first round lose equates to what 5 figure income? So they could have certainly gone and and created imo an even more unfair situation with athletes getting screwed out of olympic spots because of quarantine issues, etc. Atleast now it's across the board "fair" for all parties.

You may or may not have noticed that several races were attempted by WT but because of travel issues, races were cancelled so there wasn't then "unfair" home country benefits. So nah I say WT has done a good job of handling this pandemic.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

WT has done a pretty good job, of balancing a desire to get more races up and running, and balancing concerns from NFs and some athletes in terms of access to training facilities and ability to travel, while many countries still have steep restrictions in place. It's easy to forget some of the other outside influences on the ability for qualifying to resume, remember that WT has a rule relating to athletes being covered by insurance through their NFs. Many insurers have not been covering people who travel during the pandemic, meaning that many NFs have either had to shop around and try to find an insurer that would cover their athletes (generally at significant expense) or to prevent their athletes from competing (which several NFs did for Hamburg last year).

I've been in quite a few WT led seminars on return to competition between last summer and now, and they've got the measures, practices and procedures in place to allow events to roll, the rate limiter has largely been travel restrictions put in place for people crossing borders, and willingness of municipalities to host events during the pandemic (and availability of venues that can actually meet the guidelines for events during COVID, especially where local regulations mandate control of the number of spectators). The consistent message after the events that have happened has been that they have taken a hell of a lot of work to pull off, and they required a courageous RD and politicians being on board to collaborate to make the events happen...

That said, we're starting to see more races, some loosening of travel restrictions as vaccines are slowly starting to roll out, so race directors and host cities are starting to be a bit more willing to move ahead on events.

i thought when ITU pulled out of the Florida swing, the races no longer were being funded by ITU and others (like USAT or locals) had to kick in funding to make them happen? am i wrong on this?

what's wrong with starting may 1? that date had been known for a long time and it's not like races from 2019 don't count. also, it's not like if they opened up races this weekend, athletes would be able to get to them (or worse, get back home). travel restrictions still are severe in many places and flights only recently have been starting to get added back to the schedule.

Yes once the race lost WT "sanctioning", my guess is that it was an investment on USAT's part to keep the prize purse (+ local help likely) to give their athletes an chance to race for something. Smart idea on their part likely as it gave the athletes a chance to rust bust in prep for final Olympic push.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

"Couldn't get their shit together" is pretty harsh, there was no way they could fairly do anything any sooner. May the 1st will still be tricky for some athletes to travel. Many countries still have travel restrictions which would be making it hard for a number of athletes. Our Aus and NZ athletes will still find things very hard as once they leave their country to race they would need to stay away or hotel quarantine for 2 weeks on return. Staying away sounds like a good option except we are behind other areas with vaccinations due to low/later supply due to lower need and then EU blocking our shipments. We are now hearing that some countries (mainly in EU) have announced they will likely be requiring vaccination certificates for entry from sometime in May. The athletes that were planning to travel to race then basing themselves in Spain or the EU in the lead up to Tokyo because they couldn't return home would now be stranded. There is a lot those who will be in this situation would be trying to work out at the moment. It is not as easy for some.

Melilla has its starting lists up and this appears to be the first race in over a year with legitimate international fields (I assume they are entirely people currently based in europe):

https://www.triathlon.org/...n_cup_melilla/446798

here's to getting back to some sense of normalcy in the next month.

Haven't seen an official announcement but it doesn't look good for Osaka: https://www.triathlon.org/events

Showing on World Triathlon events list as Cancelled.

Not sure if others started to see this popping up on feeds, but it's finally officially announced that WTCS Montreal will feature the Eliminator format (I say official, because well founded rumours on this have been floating for months). Day 1 has 2 qualifying races, plus repechage, and Day 2, 3 round eliminator race, where each race the last 10 get eliminated https://www.triathlon.org/...lon_championship_ser

Excited to see the format on the World Triathlon Championship Series. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the World Tri framework, if there are protests or DSQs with the short intervals between races on day 2 (Super League tends not to use the competition jury approach, and their head of officiating makes the final call, so that can be done quickly, but while the head ref for WT events makes the final call from the field of play perspective, the rules still provide for protests and appeals) it might become challenging (unless if there's a protest or potential DSQ that can be appealed, both athletes are provisionally advanced, and then final decisions are made by a competition jury after the race is finished).

Seems that I typed too soon, there is actually a rulebook for the eliminator, that addresses many of the points that I noted might be problematic with the normal WT rules... https://www.triathlon.org/...ator_format_2021.pdf Assuming that by august the borders will allow athletes into Canada, it'll be a super exciting event!

Nice. Do you know if Melilla will be on triathlonlive?

Yes, the point about WT not having their shit together was total crap. The "World Championship" was not a mistake in the sense that it didn't create any collateral damage. It sucked for the people who were restricted from being there, but they didn't lose Olympic points or anything else for that matter. They are making the best out of the situation by waiting for the last possible moment. It is going to be a mad dash to the points finish line, but so what. At least it will be fair(ish).

To the point I really wanted to get to: Beth Potter. I don't think an Arena games means much other than in the water. My opinion is that we can safely say she is a much improved swimmer and might be able to draft her way into the first pack in an elite field. She pretty much handed Klamer and GTB their ass in the water.

From what I have heard over here, I would not be surprised if Beth podiums this year on the WTS.

Knowing her swimming background I always thought there was potential for Gwenesque performances. We may be on the cusp of that. The big question was her bike strength and I think she showed last year that she has made big advances there.

What was her swimming background? Interested to hear. Geez does she look fit.

She swam at national level here in Scotland till about 16 at which point athletics took over. I think she was around 18mins for 1500m Free. I actually think she is way faster than that now based on her swimming at the Arena Games. It's now just a case of translating that to the open water, which has been a big part of her problem.

I think her swim background was enough to build on, especially given her 32min 10k ability. No doubt that 10k time will come down another 20-30 secs now she's in a pair of Asics MetaSpeed Sky ;)

I suspect Beth Potter is a year away from WTCS podiums (no longer WTS), usually you get the next generation come through post olympics... Given that GB has already selected their team, I don't think they are rushing anyone along right now in the flurry of qualifiers between May and the close of qualification for the OGs...

That said, she'll probably crack some World Cup podiums in the July/August timeframe...

I'm out of touch... what's WTCS?

That said, I never liked WTS for the time they adopted it.

E

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
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World Triathlon Championship Series.

aka: the 7-9 races a year that award points towards that years series champion.

Beth already won Valencia WC last November. It had close to a WC caliber field. And she was second at Arzachena WC, which had a 60-70% WTCS level field.

I think she'll continue to win WC's and place top 5-10 at WTCS's this year.
All depends on the course and what girls make up the front group. She is a competent rider, but she won't be bridging to Flora/GTB/Learmonth/Lindemann/Kingma/Zaferes, ect on her own.

I will actually be disappointed if she doesn't podium on the WTCS this season, and I have a feeling Beth will too. I think the big thing will be if her pool swim can translate to OW. If it does then I don't think the bike course will matter. She's shown huge development on the bike over the last 18 months.

Another factor is that she hasn't really ran to her potential in a triathlon yet, but I think you'll see that this year with her added swim and bike strength. It's still too early to say, but there is the potential for some GJesque runs.

And let's not forget she has been a WC podium racer since 2018.