Did anyone else see the Pro collide with the row boat which sat in the middle of the lane about 150 meters into the swim. Boat was sent to stop the swimmers but instead they rammed right into it broad side. Very ugly scene. Lead swimmer wanted to pull the guy out of the boat and deck him. The Chicago Harbor Patrol steped in and told the Pro to back off. Interesting…
This kind of stuff is one of the reasons I usually don’t like to start in the pro wave.
lol any pictures of that?!? any articles on it? thats a funny scene to picture yet sad that the guy went straight into the boat, was he not checking what was in front of him?
wingman,
I was standing on the start steps along side all the women Pro’s, next to MJ and it was an amzing scene indeed. Most of the women were shaking their heads in disbelief as well as the announcers and all that were in the same area.
Here it is, about 5:00 before start and the Pro’s are in the water warming up. Many, I mean many of them swim almost to the first turn, then back. First I thought…they are not going to make it back because the announcer is doing the count down to start with minutes to go…and they are still way far away.
fast forward…less than a minute, the announcer is telling the athletes to get back. They are all creeping past the start line buoy. By my view from the steps, they had to be close to 15 yards past the start line. Then out of no where, a cow bell clangs and they are off. The announcers are frantically telling them on the loud speaker to get back…they are gone. About 50 yards out 11 Pro’s stop. The other 20 or so are continuing. You are so correct, the volunteer boat pulls ahead turns 90 degrees to the swimmers and from my view it look liked all 20 or so swimmers nailed the boat. By my estimation, they were easily 100-150 yards into the swim before the brave boat cut them off.
They all had to swim back. I did not see that incedent and he is probably very lucky he was not pentalized. They swim back, line up and get a clean start.
fast forward again, women get in, less than 20 and they start creeping but only maybe 5 yards or so and they get off clean.
Amazing to see this, But the bottom line is…they no better.
I was on the wall right at the scene. It was a loud thump to say the least. Had to hurt. Amazed that he continued.
Ditto.
well I was there and there is not much to add, but I do have video of it and i will be posted in the next few days on
www.youtube.com/iwilltri
.
InsideTri.com talks about it here:
http://insidetriathlon.com/portal/news/news.asp?item=110593
.
So Greg wanted an old fashioned Ozzie mixup with the poor volunteer.
I saw it happen. It was unfortunate timing for Walton as there is probably only a fraction of a second when he doesn’t have an arm completely extended in front of him.
It was cool to watch how the pack splintered at the turn.
Pro I coach said it was an ugly swim. VERY VERY physical. Lots of unsportsmanlike conduct - unfortunately - you really couldn’t tell who was who in wetsuits. My pro guy was shoved into another who punched him in the goggle and in T1 he was still removing his goggle from his eye socket. He is a newer pro and is smaller by comparison but is a ridiculously fast swimmer and cyclist.