Is triathlon too open?

gilleek2

amphkingwest wrote: »

I don't make the ITU rules.

It doesn't matter who you are or how you are built, regarding water temperature at any point below 15° your core temperature will drop. That is why there are strict limits on the temperatures of the water and the duration of immersion in the same water.

Your polar bear example will be more conditioned to swimming in cold water and able to tolerate the cold better / recover quicker than your average triathlete but his / her physiology is susceptable to the exact same conditions of lowering core temperature (bar one or two exceptions) and risk of hypothermia.

Hypothermia coming out of the water is not the issue. It is the continuing development of hypothermia (started in the water) through the bike course which puts people at risk.

Regarding your second point there are also guidelines on the conditions, current, wind speed and air temperatures which TO's have to work to.

So if there are guidelines there, presumably coming from TI and the ITU then what's the issue? The TO/ref/whoever makes the call, has to abide by the guidelines and do what they think, IN THE MOMENT, is the right thing to do. Swell/wind might die down and after the race the water might be dead calm but they've got a call to make and cant decide to give it a lash and hope conditions get better.

The run is my best discipline but it's pretty rare that we get conditions that give me a better shot at AG success! My swim was c. 66% longer in Kenmare 2010 than 2009. you'd need gale force winds to make the run course 66% harder. Does that ever happen? If it were to happen, would people call for the race to be abandonned? Would it be the stellar swimmers who cling on in the run that would be calling for the race to be stopped??

PGF

gilleek2 wrote: »

Would it be the stellar swimmers who cling on in the run that would be calling for the race to be stopped??

Strawman argument... again.

MorganIRL

How about you have to show a level of competency @ the beginning of the yr to gain your licence be single event or multi for beginners. My point being every area has a pool on certain dates there will be a member of TI there to grade people over a certain distance, I accept ow swimming is totally diff but at least this will eradicate the guys and gals who turn up for 1 event, it also shows that these people are planning ahead for the yr and wanna do more than 1 event. Your time then will put u into waves. If u have a licence from the previous yr its automatically updated and if u have recorded times you get pushed up a wave if your competent.

I know this or anything similar wont happen as the costs involved.

There is a huge amount of people 'training' for a tri, myself included, but I know I differ from a lot of people, I've had a 2 yr training plan to do my first tri, get competent in each discipline first then compete. I've being a member of a tri club all along gaining valuable info on each discipline. I think the idea of finishing a tri, him, im, are all being watered down by people ticking boxes. I'm late to the sport but I love it and plan to do it for along time, the '4 years' mentioned earlier seems short for the amount of people doing the sport

foxyboxer

If a swim is shortened yet everyone is allowed to swim The decreased distance then this infers that it is shortened because of the conditions and not the perceived inexperience of the back packers.

If a swim is cancelled outright then I'm sure this is purely based on the conditions on race day. Open water is potentially fatal for all despite experience and ability. It is the organisers duty to ensure safety after all.

So you come across someone slow in the swim? The swim is cancelled? The solution is to simply deal with it. Have a modicum of mental toughness and deal with it. There will be other races. Even if this is your A race of the year.