Much ado about a duathlon rumor
WASHINGTON D.C. — When elites were barred from swim practice Saturday by cautious swim directors — due to nearby lightning strikes — many competitors got the mistaken idea that pre-race rains polluted the Potomac and Sunday's World Championship Series Round 3 would be a duathlon. No such luck for Tim Don and other great runners. Good news for Andy Potts.
This will be a triathlon.
Thunder, lightning and a series of rain fronts have been intermittently sweeping through the Washington D.C. area – alternating with the usual hot summer sunny afternoons. More of the short spates of showers are predicted for tonight. But whatever the rains, official measurements of the Potomac show that the waters are well within the USA Triathlon and ITU safe health guidelines for competitive swimming.
The most recent water quality test conducted on June 15 by the Department of the Environment of the District of Columbia showed that the Potomac River levels were well within the acceptable range for swimming in the river. "However, since the last test, the amount of rainfall may have resulted in an elevated risk," stated the DOE. "The Department of the Environment states that athletes swim at their own risk and if they choose to take part in the river swim, that they take extra precautions upon exiting the water to ensure that all potential bacterial contaminants are thoroughly rinsed away."
USA Triathlon CEO Skip Gilbert stated: " Based on the hard data from the test results earlier this week, we are well within acceptable standards. The ITU competition jury, in association with USA Triathlon technical and medical officials, have made the decision to run a full triathlon tomorrow."
Jessica Harrison of France, the ITU Athlete Representative, added: "The athletes very much appreciate that the ITU have taken the health of their athletes as a primary concern. We understand the associated risk is minimal and the athletes want to go ahead with the full triathlon tomorrow."
Illustrating the high tension surrounding this the third round in the 2009 Dextro Energy World Championship Series Triathlon in the nation's capital, many in the elite field initially bought the rumor that they would be participating in a duathlon and offered highly altered race strategies before a 5 PM official meeting with coaches and athletes to set the record straight.
Sarah Haskins, the USA's 2008 ITU World Championship silver medalist who is coming off a February operation to repair a nerve sheath problem in her ankle, said "I'm just going to do the first leg 5k run and the 40k bike and I will pull out. I'm not ready to put my leg through high stress for 15k just yet."
But, given her excellent 5th place performance at Round 3 in Madrid, Haskins should be a factor in tomorrow's triathlon.
Former ITU World Duathlon Champion Tim Don, who can hold his own on the swim as evidenced by his 2006 ITU Triathlon World Championship gold medal, had his eyes bugging out in anticipation of a run-bike-run. "It's a duathlon!" said Don before the word came down.
Early in the afternoon, the USA's Matt Reed said, "I heard the swim will be cancelled because the rains have made the water too polluted. it's disappointing." Reed, who won the recent Pan Am Championships in Oklahoma City in waters which tested at a high rate of pollutants due to recent rains, said he would prefer to dive in. "When I'm fit, I should swim in the first pack and I was looking forward to it. I don’t think the water would bother me. When we raced at Oklahoma City, there were five times more than the safe level for pollutants in the river. I only got a little case of the sniffles. I'd just as soon take some pills after the race to combat it."
Apropos the false rumor, Reed said "I bet Andy Potts isn't happy."
Daniel Unger, the 2007 ITU World Champion, said a duathlon would favor "good runners like Tim Don, Simon Whitfield, Brad Kahlefeldt and Jan Frodeno." Unger said that given the race's importance, "it was probably a good idea to play it safe." Still, he speculated, German indifference to duathlon might play a role in diminishing the race's live coverage back home. "Hopefully, the coverage in Germany is still live TV. (it is! ) They are talking about it now because it has changed to a duathlon" (It is not!)
Which brought joking speculation among some competitors that this was some conspiracy among duathlon activists to hijack a big event to promote their increasingly diminishing fringe corner of multisport.
No such luck.
