I’m interested as to how an ineligible athlete managed to qualify for the Ultraman Florida. Mark Robson is a British person living in Australia who was recently banned for 2 years for cheating in at least 4 Ironman events in Australia. His ban started December 2013 and ended December 2015. Part of the criteria for qualifying for the Ultraman Florida is:
Applicant must have, at minimum, completed an iron distance event in the 18 months prior to Ultraman Florida 2016.
He has not met this criteria. I’m not sure if he lied on his application form? The race director and selector for Ultraman Florida, Consuela Lively, has been contacted but appeared defensive when faced with Mark Robson’s history and ineligibility. It has since transpired she has been his online coach for the last 12 months. Does anyone know anything more about the application/qualifying process for Ultraman Florida?
I’m interested as to how an ineligible athlete managed to qualify for the Ultraman Florida. Mark Robson is a British person living in Australia who was recently banned for 2 years for cheating in at least 4 Ironman events in Australia. His ban started December 2013 and ended December 2015. Part of the criteria for qualifying for the Ultraman Florida is:
Applicant must have, at minimum, completed an iron distance event in the 18 months prior to Ultraman Florida 2016.
He has not met this criteria. I’m not sure if he lied on his application form? The race director and selector for Ultraman Florida, Consuela Lively, has been contacted but appeared defensive when faced with Mark Robson’s history and ineligibility. It has since transpired she has been his online coach for the last 12 months. Does anyone know anything more about the application/qualifying process for Ultraman Florida?
I’m interested as to how an ineligible athlete managed to qualify for the Ultraman Florida. Mark Robson is a British person living in Australia who was recently banned for 2 years for cheating in at least 4 Ironman events in Australia. His ban started December 2013 and ended December 2015. Part of the criteria for qualifying for the Ultraman Florida is:
Applicant must have, at minimum, completed an iron distance event in the 18 months prior to Ultraman Florida 2016.
He has not met this criteria. I’m not sure if he lied on his application form? The race director and selector for Ultraman Florida, Consuela Lively, has been contacted but appeared defensive when faced with Mark Robson’s history and ineligibility. It has since transpired she has been his online coach for the last 12 months. Does anyone know anything more about the application/qualifying process for Ultraman Florida?
Was his ban only with Ironman branded events?
No he was banned from competing in all Ironman branded events plus made ineligible for membership of Triathlon Australia, effectively ruling him out of all triathlons in Australia. Despite his ban he still competed in the Bintan 70.3. Triathlon Australia were made aware of this and are currently investigating it.
So the rule is he must have competed in an Iron distance race, not Ironman branded. Maybe he did an Iron distance outside of Australia?
Perhaps. I’ve never met him, but am on his Facebook (friend of a friend) and normally if he does any form of sporting event the whole world gets to know about it. Dozens of medal photos all from different angles etc etc
A) He may have done a different iron distance race
B) He may have enough of an iron distance history that was accepted
C) The RD can accept/deny anyone they want, it is their race
D) Who cares?
E) All of the above
That specific criteria to have done 1 iron distance race is race based, not federation based. It was federation based when he was banned for 2 years. Since it was a race based criteria, the RD has the rights to apply it to a case by case basis. If, for example, he did Ultraman Florida in 2014 then it would have been no-no.
I’m interested as to how an ineligible athlete managed to qualify for the Ultraman Florida. Mark Robson is a British person living in Australia who was recently banned for 2 years for cheating in at least 4 Ironman events in Australia. His ban started December 2013 and ended December 2015. Part of the criteria for qualifying for the Ultraman Florida is:
Applicant must have, at minimum, completed an iron distance event in the 18 months prior to Ultraman Florida 2016.
He has not met this criteria. I’m not sure if he lied on his application form? The race director and selector for Ultraman Florida, Consuela Lively, has been contacted but appeared defensive when faced with Mark Robson’s history and ineligibility. It has since transpired she has been his online coach for the last 12 months. Does anyone know anything more about the application/qualifying process for Ultraman Florida?
It’s not clear to me why anyone would want to coach a disgraced athlete, but I recall from another thread that discussed this very same ‘athlete’ that it’s not like there is some world-wide list of banned athletes that RD’s can look up. In the instant case, if the RD had not personally known of his past, and the person identifies 4 IM distance events, that is probably enough. RD’s generally don’t have time to look up each person’s history to see if they are some master banned list – although I recognize you can make a case that Ultraman should do this given their very low field limit of 40. Bottomline - in my opinion, it reflects more on the character of this person (who is thumbing his nose at the sport) than it does on the organizer.
I cannot speak to the circumstances leading up to Mark being accepted into the 2016 race, but below is the announcement regarding his ban. I hope it clarifies things for people. Just pulling out the facts… He was banned in Australia only. He most definitely could have raced outside of Australia during his ban and his ban expired in January of 2016.
Under the Triathlon Australia Member Protection Policy, Western Australia triathlete Mark Robson has been suspended from annual and one day membership of Triathlon Australia for a period of two years.
The sanction was imposed by the Board of Triathlon Australia after Triathlon Western Australia received complaints from several members about the actions of Mr Robson in triathlon events held in Western Australia between 2011 and 2013. After an initial review of the facts, Triathlon Western Australia referred the matter to Triathlon Australia. An investigation into the allegations was conducted by an independent firm of investigators and their report concluded that:
Mr Robson engaged in deliberate and pre-meditated actions to gain an unfair advantage in the 2013 IRONMAN 70.3 Busselton event.
On the balance of probabilities Mr Robson engaged in deliberate and pre-meditated actions to gain an unfair advantage in other significant triathlon events identified between 2011 and 2013.
Mr Robsons suspension commenced on 9 January 2014 and will conclude on 8 January 2016. During this time, he is ineligible for both annual and one day membership of Triathlon Australia. He has also been retrospectively disqualified from the four events identified and he is required to return any awards or prizes won at these races.
Yes, he cut courses. Soak that in… 2 year ban for cutting courses. I can tell you that Ultraman Florida puts multiple check points through the course where the athlete numbers are recorded to insure they do not cut the course.