CAS dismisses Wiltshire appeal
The Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland Thursday dismissed British triathlete Harry Wiltshire’s appeal to overturn his 6-month suspension from ITU competition for “repeated unsportsmanlike conduct” at the June 25, 2011 European Championships in Ponte Vedra, Spain.
ITU officials disqualified Wiltshire for three violations of ITU competition rules, in essence for deliberately impeding Spanish ITU star Javier Gomez multiple times during the swim, the swim exit and during the bike segment of the European Championships event held in Gomez’s home town.
After a month of reviewing video replay and deliberating what punishment was appropriate, the Executive Board of the International Triathlon Union handed Wiltshire a 6-month suspension from competition starting June 26, 2011 and ran through the day after Christmas.
Wiltshire filed his appeal to the CAS on August 10 but no action was taken until the New Year. The CAS panel reviewed video evidence and heard testimonies from Wiltshire and on-course officials and the race referee.
In addition to dismissing the appeal, the CAS ruled that the 6-month suspension was not “evidently and grossly disproportionate” as Wiltshire contended. As a result, the CAS required Wiltshire to pay ITU 2,500 Swiss francs as its cost of the legal process.
As matters turned out, the length of the appeals process was longer than the suspension itself.
According to two-time ITU World Champion Javier Gomez of Spain, Wiltshire deliberately blocked him several times during the swim of the European Championships.
“Disappointed with what Harry Wiltshire did in the swim, hope ITU penalizes him hard,” wrote Gomez in a tweet after the race. “Everyone saw it. “
Gomez added: "The video is a fraction of the assaults. The first thing I notice is someone grabbing my foot and pulling it back.
"The second thing that happens is Harry rushes to me and sinks me grabbing my head and shoulder.
"He pushes me to the right, towards the centre of the river.
"After a brutal and even larger waste of time we reach the ladders out of the water and instead of getting up and running to transition, he looks back and stands blocking the way. His dirty work did not end here because when we rode strongly on the bike to catch the front group he devoted himself to getting into the relay to clog it up, creating situations of real danger."
Alistair Brownlee, Wiltshire’s teammate and friend, commented on the incident on July.
“It’s disappointing to learn of any forms of sanctions in sport, especially one involving a friend,” wrote Brownlee in an email response to a request for comment by Slowtwitch.
“Harry was racing at the European Champs in a Team role but targeting Javier Gomez was never part of the tactics discussed.”
As regards rough team tactics in triathlon, Brownlee condemned the practice.
”Attempting to target the fastest swimmer in the field with a considerably slower athlete makes this idea fanciful and of course, deliberately trying to hamper the race of another athlete is immoral and unsportsmanlike,” wrote Brownlee. “The specific targeting of a competitor is not in the spirit of competition and not something that belongs in sport.”
