The latest football news, analysis, game coverage, live scores, schedules, rankings. Follow the Super Rugby Season, Rugby Championship
On the 18th hole of the final match on Kiawah Island in 1991, Bernhard Langer stood over a six-foot putt knowing to sink it would retain the Ryder Cup for Europe. The atmosphere was as tense in the packed galleries as it was nail-biting in homes either side of the Atlantic.
Advertisement
“I think it’s around 230 million,” Patrick Hunt, the competition’s chairman boasts of the audience for the biennial showpiece that has stretched to over 160 countries with viewing numbers to rival the Super Bowl. “It’s certainly the most widely covered golf event there is.”
Given world-class golfers thwack little white balls down fairways all year round, how does the appeal of a three-day team competition between Europe and the USA transcend golf enthusiasts? And if a nervous Langer had held his putter with the same grip as the event captivated its viewers, might he have holed the damn thing?
While history cannot be rewritten, the answer to the first question is fierce rivalry, according to Charles Adamo, the chairman of the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO), that is adapting the Ryder Cup template for swim, bike and run in the form of the Collins Cup.
CHANGING THE STATUS QUO
When I first met Charles last summer he was new to multisport, and like many fresh to this nook of the endurance world, was marvelling at how dedicated its elite performers were, and bemused by how poorly they were paid.
In trying to change the status quo, he impressively outlined the plan for a three-team international competition raced over middle distance and built around engaging fans and improving the lot of professional triathletes.
The Collins Cup: a new Ryder Cup-style team competition for long distance tri
Named after Ironman pioneers, John and Judy Collins, the concept loosely mirrors the Ryder Cup singles’ match-play format except it will – in keeping with proud triathlon tradition – include both genders. Its chief aim is to build the profile of long-course professionals so they’re better remunerated.
There is work to do. Both the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) and the PTO work as not-for-profit entities, but the former wields considerably more influence. Golf’s US Masters paid out $11,000,000 in prize money in April, compared to the total purse for the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii in October of $650,000. The 30-40% of revenues that filter back to golfers is way above the percentage claimed by Ironman professionals. The difference in power share between the organisers and participants is stark.
Consider the impact if Jordan Speith and Rory McIlroy, for example, decided to sit out a major because of a pay dispute. All sides understand the damage the sport’s profile would receive. In contrast, if professional triathletes decided to boycott Kona, would Ironman just fill the pier with more amateur racers? Given professional fields have already been axed at many Ironman events, the perceived value of the pro racer is negligible. And, perhaps, with some justification.
Unlike golf, triathlon has yet to prove it can draw a crowd for professional long-course racing, and plenty will argue that watching swim, bike and run for hours – however adept its proponents – will never hold an allure for a large-scale audience. Adamo believes triathlon’s protagonists have yet to harness their collective power and spin an engaging enough narrative. There have been previous attempts. The Professional Triathlon Association in 2009, and then the Professional Triathlon Union (a precursor to the PTO) in 2015 both failed to gain traction, and the hope is that the Collins Cup finally provides a platform – albeit a self-generated one – to prove their worth.
DRIP-FED DEVELOPMENTS
So will it work? Adamo’s presentation was clear in pointing out the Collins Cup would chase the biggest names to give it the greatest chance of success. Confidence was bolstered by the backing of Wasserman, the sports media group, worth upwards of $115million according to Forbes. But it was also conceptual; an untested event to be shoehorned into an increasingly cluttered calendar. And it was independent of the International Triathlon Union and WTC, the sport’s two big players. It was hard not to be impressed by the ambition, but putting that plan into action was the real challenge.
In the 12 months that followed, the PTO has drip-fed developments, including naming the six captains, announcing a new rankings system for selection and finally revealing the location. For dyed-in-the-wool triathlon fans, it should have hit the spot like flat cola on the run. Regional skippers such as Dave Scott, Simon Whitfield and Chrissie Wellington and a host venue of Roth for its debut in 2018, show that the PTO wants the Collins Cup to be taken seriously.
Roth is the obvious – and correct – choice. Up to 260,000 turn up every year in the small town in southern Germany for the Challenge race, a fan-base that dwarves any in long-course triathlon and rivals Hamburg on the ITU circuit. It’s bringing the Collins Cup to those with the biggest appetite for non-drafting racing, and to a nation that, led by Jan Frodeno and Sebastian Kienle, provided five of the top seven men’s finishers in Hawaii last year.
Yet it brings no guarantees of success. A new venture in a niche sport a year hence proved a predictably difficult sell to mainstream media, and while the hype probably wasn’t overbearing ahead of the first Ryder Cup match in 1927, Adamo et al were hoping for a bigger impact.
The Collins Cup may also take a while to bed in (Dave Scott, the US men’s captain and six-time Ironman world champion, loves to tell of how all he received for his early Kona wins was a t-shirt), however a more fundamental issue might be the duration of competition.
AT ODDS WITH CURRENT THINKING
It’s at odds with the current thinking that to make triathlon coverage more engaging the format needs to be shorter and sharper. The introduction of the lightning fast-paced, and viewing public-friendly, relay event into the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 as well as an increasing number of sprint races being added to the annual World Series, suggests the ITU might be leaning towards shorter distances in the not-too-distant future. Even more dynamic was the recently launched Super League Triathlon, a mixed bag of made-for-TV racing, pioneered by Chris McCormack, and a throwback to the Australian Grand Prix series in the late 90s. Instant gratification rather than a slow burn seems to be in vogue.
Anything longer simply hasn’t worked. The NBC Sports Ironman World Championship show is an annual staple, but it is also a highlights package broadcast weeks after the event with producers including human interest stories for added frisson. The live online stream for Kona has limited production values, although is at least an improvement on the epic tussle between Jan Frodeno and Javier Gomez at the 2014 Ironman 70.3 world title showdown in Mont Tremblant, which could only be followed via an online tracker.
The PTO believes it’s time for this young sport (the first ITU world championships were held in 1989, Ironman made its bow in 1978) to grasp the nettle. It’s helped that the proliferation of global media and the rise of digital broadcasting allows dedicated channels to comprehensively cover more events. The Collins Cup will still be over in the time it takes to play a round in the Ryder Cup, and consider that NFL games last over 3 hours on average with just 11 minutes of on-field action. If nothing else, it allows for a lot of ad breaks.
PACK A PUNCH
Triathlon may not have matured enough for these comparisons, but it can pack a punch. Two years ago 1.4million viewers tuned in to German broadcaster ARD for live coverage of the Mixed Relay World Championships in Hamburg, more than the Tour de France that was running concurrently.
It’s also a laudable, perhaps necessary, ambition to put professional wellbeing at triathlon’s heart. If you don’t try to build the profile of its elite performers it will forever remain a fringe sport with a mainstream Olympic focus once every four years.
As for the format, while it might seem an obscure distance of 3km swim, 120km bike and 25km run, not too much stock should be placed in this. Whether a golfer shoots a 65 or 75 in the Ryder Cup, what matters is how he fares against his opponent, and it’s this drama that the Collins Cup head-to-head format is trying to capture.
One boon of the distance is its appeal as a carrot for short-course racers to step up (each team has four wildcard picks), which leaves the door ajar for the likes of Olympic medallists Javier Gomez, Nicola Spirig, Gwen Jorgensen and the Brownlees, with 220 understanding organisers have already contacted Alistair. The Yorkshireman has ruled himself out for the rest of the year due to hip surgery, but the biggest name in the sport has long broadcast his desire to test himself at all distances. If the money is right, it shouldn’t be ruled out.
THE THREAT OF IRONMAN?
There are also logistics to overcome. It’s a coup for the PTO to take the Collins Cup to Roth on the same day as the established Challenge contest, not least because of the readymade crowd it will bring. But while the team event is planned for the afternoon, Roth typically has competitors out on the run course until late into the evening, and, as was seen from Challenge’s inaugural ‘Championship’ venture at Samorin in Slovakia, it can be confusing to have fast-moving professional triathletes dodging tired age-groupers on the course at the event’s climax.
How the PTO is accepted by Ironman, the ITU and Challenge is another hurdle. Adamo is clear the PTO favours collaboration and Challenge, in opening up Roth, has shown its hand of accessibility. The ITU will be ambivalent at best. Its focus is on growing the sport, and, at elite level, the World Series that underpins the Olympic qualifying programme and sees many competing athletes funded by national bodies via, for example, the national lottery in the UK.
Ironman is the threat. The professionals are not its core market – as underlined by its refusal to up the number of female pro slots, so there’s parity of genders in Hawaii. With some amateurs paying up to $100,000 for a start, those extra places on the Kona pier are golden tickets for CEO Andrew Messick keen to impress his commercial stakeholders at Chinese-owned parent company, Wanda Group.
Consider how Ironman lays siege to Challenge’s largely franchise model. It buys its races from local organisers or schedules rival events in nearby locations. It’s a confrontational approach by any measure, and if the Collins Cup looks like it might prove successful, it will be judged with the same hostility. WTC could, for example, up its prize purses at Ironman Frankfurt, a race that takes place in close enough proximity in both time and distance to the action in Roth. A step on, but it could also tie professionals into more lucrative contracts for the full year, dissuading them from taking part in ‘rival’ events (the paradox being that even the notion of the Collins Cup could then works to the PTO’s ultimate aim of boosting the professionals’ earning power). Whatever happens, history suggests that a commercially-hardened WTC will be no friend of this new format because it has no stake in it.
TIME TO FIND ITS FEET
The PTO has also launched a new qualifying points format that differs from Ironman’s Kona Points Ranking and a separate pro money list pulled together by Challenge. The sport’s leading statistician, Thorsten Radde, has been recruited to make it work, and while the logic of building drama as athletes strive for qualification is sound, when the pro list is based on ‘propriety algorithms’ it’s all getting rather wonkish. For the record, Sebastian Kienle and Daniela Ryf are the current chart toppers.
The Collins Cup World Ranking System
Another challenge is that its first television broadcast does not garner the interest demanded by its media partners – missing the dreaded ROI or KPIs of marketing speak. The format could be a masterstroke, yet the race could still fall flat. Triathlon is at its best when there is ebb and flow between competitors. Think Mark Allen v Dave Scott in the epic Ironwar of 1989, or Chris McCormack v Andreas Raelert reliving that experience 21 years on. But sport is also unpredictable, and while the format might be captivating the event could be skewered by simply being a mismatch, and a landslide victory for Europe. Consider Frodeno, Gomez, Brownlee, Kienle, Ryf… it’s a formidable European union that looks a lot more secure than the one Jean-Claude Juncker is currently presiding over.
Click Here: liverpool mens jersey
It needs patience. The Ryder Cup limped along from 1927 with USA thumping Great Britain and Ireland on a regular basis until it expanded to include the rest of Europe in 1979, and six years later Tony Jacklin’s side beat Lee Trevino’s in an epic contest at the Belfry. The Collins Cup does not have 52 years to bed down, but, like anyone who has ever stumbled out of T2 with jelly-legs knows, it does need time to find its feet.
Advertisement
What next? The Collins Cup has its qualifying system, its captains and its venues and is currently looking to confirm broadcast rights. Then it’s all set for race day and while it will take a big effort for either Europe, the USA or the Rest of the World to win the inaugural contest on July 1 next year, the bigger triumph will be if the hearts and minds of sport’s fans really buy into this brave new venture.
To celebrate the release of her hotly anticipated new book To the Finish Line: A World Champion Triathlete’s Guide To Your Perfect Race, this September Chrissie Wellington is embarking on a nationwide book signing tour, which takes in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Tenby (Ironman Wales Expo).
Advertisement
Written in conjunction with 220, the book offers advice on everything, from planning your race season and fitting triathlon training into everyday life, to race nutrition strategies and coping with pre-race nerves, to exercising during pregnancy and how to budget for a triathlon.
Drawing on Chrissie’s own training and race experiences – both good and bad – and packed full of extras, such as recipes, a typical weekly training programme and pearls of wisdom from some of Chrissie’s own advisors, including her former coach and fellow Ironman legend, 220 Triathlon columnist Dave Scott
Chrissie told 220: “The book is something I have wanted to do for a long time and has been a labour of love. I wanted to give something back to the sport I love, which has given me so much, and inspire others to push that bar a little bit higher to see what they could achieve.
“Triathlon is an all-consuming sport and support from family and friends are an important part of any triathlete’s journey. I want readers to feel, through this book, that I am part of that network and help give them the skills, and the confidence, to push through and cross their own personal finish line.”
Chrissie Wellington OBE is an iconic figure in the history of British triathlon. A four-time world Ironman champion, she also holds the Ironman world record, was voted Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year in 2010, and was awarded an OBE for services to sport and charity in 2015. Her 2012 memoir, A Life Without Limits, also published by Constable, was a No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller.
Click Here: liverpool mens jersey
Advertisement
To the Finish Line: A World Champion Triathlete’s Guide To Your Perfect Race, published by Constable, will be out on 7th September
Previous studies have found exercise improves brain function and your memory, and that the more aerobically fit you are the better memory you are more likely to have, but until now have not known why.
Click Here: liverpool mens jersey
Advertisement
To investigate why scientists used magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), a therapy that measures the firmness and elasticity of organs, to measure the firmness and elasticity of the hippocampus, a region of the brain associated with memory, of 51 adults.
This group consisted of 25 men and 26 women, aged 18-35. They measured the participants’ performance on a memory test as well as their aerobic fitness levels, and used MRE to measure the elasticity of the hippocampus.
They found that those with higher fitness levels also had more elastic tissue in the hippocampus and scored the best on memory tests. Given the many studies showing the association between hippocampal health and memory in seniors and children, which was based on the size of the hippocampus, the results strongly suggest that MRE is a method that reveals that there is also an association between the health of the hippocampus and memory in young adults.
“MRE is a technique that has been used in organs like the liver, where it can assess the tissue stiffness and offers a reliable, non-invasive method for diagnosing hepatic fibrosis,” explains Guoying Liu, Ph.D. Director of the NIBIB program on Magnetic Resonance Imaging. “This study now demonstrates the tremendous potential for MRE to provide new quantitative biomarkers for assessing brain health as it relates to physical fitness. This is particularly significant given the rise in dementia and Alzheimer’s disease occurring in the U.S. and worldwide.”
The work was based on well-established observations of atrophy and reduced size of the hippocampus in cognitively declining seniors and developmentally delayed children. Given that long-known phenomenon, the researchers were puzzled by the fact that in young adults there was a correlation between fitness and memory, but the size of the hippocampus was the same in both groups.
“Most of the work in this area has relied on changes in the size of the hippocampus as a measure of hippocampal health and function. However, in young adults, although we see an increase in memory in more aerobically fit individuals, we did not see differences in hippocampal size,” said lead author Dr. Aron K. Barbey. “Because size is a gross measure of the structural integrity of the hippocampus, we turned to MRE, which provides a more thorough and qualitative measure of changes associated with function — in this case memory.”
The investigators explained that MRE gives a better indication of the microstructure of the hippocampus — the structural integrity of the entire tissue. And it does this by basically “bouncing” the organ, very gently, and measuring how it responds.
The healthy hippocampus is like a firm pillow that quickly bounces back into shape after you press your finger into it as opposed to a mushy pillow that would retain your finger mark and not rebound to its original shape.
Barbey said, “MRE turned out to be a fantastic tool that enabled us to demonstrate the importance of the hippocampus in healthy young adults and the positive effect of fitness.
“And, of course, if these results are more widely disseminated,” Barbey concludes, “they could certainly serve as tremendous motivation for people concerned about getting forgetful as they age, to get moving and try to stay fit.”
Advertisement
The research was performed by Aron K. Barbey, Associate Professor, Departments of Psychology and Bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, along with his colleagues at Illinois, and with collaborators from Northeastern University in Boston and the University of Delaware. Their results are reported in the March issue of the journal NeuroImage 2017; 153: 179 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.03.061
Andy Salmon has been announced as the new Chief Executive of British Triathlon, to take the sport forward to Tokyo 2020 and beyond.
Advertisement
Salmon will take strategic lead of the National Governing Body in mid-November and will guide the sport through the Olympic and Paralympic cycle. His role will also embrace executive responsibility for Triathlon England and fulfilment of its objectives of building participation, supporting and increasing membership.
The former Welsh Schools Golfer will bring with him a wealth of leadership experience, having held the position of Deputy CEO and Development Director of Scottish Golf for 9 years prior to leaving the organisation in late 2016. Salmon is currently interim CEO of Scottish Snowsport and Chairman of Triathlon Scotland. Having been involved with a number of sports, Salmon’s broad perspective of the challenges and opportunities facing the sector will be invaluable to British Triathlon.
Salmon said: “I am hugely excited to be joining the team at British Triathlon and Triathlon England. There is so much to be positive about in triathlon and I look forward to building on the tremendous progress made by Jack Buckner and the team as we strive to deliver the 2024 vision.”
Ian Howard, President of British Triathlon, said: “We are thrilled to announce the appointment of Andy Salmon as the new Chief Executive of British Triathlon. We are confident he will drive the organisation towards continued success over the coming years.
Click Here: liverpool mens jersey
“We thank Jack for his contribution to British Triathlon over the past three years, and wish him well in his new role as Chief Executive of British Swimming”.
Current British Triathlon Chief Executive, Jack Buckner said: “Over the past three years, I have witnessed many great successes within triathlon. Grassroots participation figures have increased enormously and we achieved 7 medals during Rio 2016, including the first ever paratriathlon gold.”
Advertisement
“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with Andy in his current role at Triathlon Scotland and believe he will continue to build on our success at every level of the sport.”
Immortal Sport have announced they are to take over organising the Wimbleball middle distance triathlon in Somerset, following the news earlier this year that Ironman were to drop the famous toughie, IM UK 70.3, from their 2018 schedule.
Advertisement
This race has been an iconic fixture in the British tri scene since 2006 and is a race we named 8th toughest 70.3 in the world.
IM UK 70.3 was the first official 113km Ironman race in the world and first ran in 2001 in North Wales before moving to Somerset in 2006. Since that day, the event has seen over 20,000 athletes tackle the challenging course famed for its chilly 1.9km lake swim, hilly 90km bike and rolling 21.1km mixed-terrain run route.
The new Wimbleball Immortal Weekend will cater not just for triathletes but their families by offering Tristars junior triathlons as well as entertainment for the family and onsite camping.
The event will also be hosting mixed team relays. To be introduced at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Immortal Sport are one of only a handful of organisers offering the chance to try this fast-paced, spectator friendly format.
Ironman 70.3 UK Exmoor race tips
Advertisement
Entries are now open for the 2018 race. Find out more here
Click Here: liverpool mens jersey
Flora Duffy will be taking maximum points into the Grand Final in Rotterdam on 16 September, following her fifth win of the season in Stockholm (athletes are allowed to take their top four results into the final round). The reigning champ has been the one to beat since she rocked up to start her title campaign in Yokohama; Ashleigh Gentle the only one to do it in Montreal where Duffy finished second.
Advertisement
The Olympic-distance race started with a two-lap 1.5km swim, split into 1,000m and 500m in a bid to string the group out and avoid the traffic jam that inevitably builds up at turn buoys.
GB’s Jodie Stimpson was back in the WTS mix, her first race since the Gold Coast in April due to injury. But it was teammate Jess Learmonth and Lucy Hall who led Duffy out of the water in front of City Hall. Stimpson had a great swim to exit in sixth but a false start meant an ITU official was waiting for her in transition. The punishment – a 15sec stop-go in the worst place possible, an agonising wait while the majority of the field collected their bikes and wheeled out onto the 10-lap 40km bike course. Completed, the Commonwealth gold medallist was tasked with a 32sec deficit at the start of the bike.
Up front, Hall was quickly dropped by the threatening threesome of Duffy, Learmonth and the USA’s Katie Zaferes, who pulled out a 30sec lead by the start of lap two to the chase group. The deficit to Stimpson’s group was almost a minute.
Midway through the 10-lap course and Zaferes came a cropper on one of Stockholm’s many cobbled corners, leaving Duffy and Learmonth to stretch the gap to the chasers, including Stimpson, to 2mins by the end of the bike.
Click Here: liverpool mens jersey
Onto the 10km run and it was a one-woman road race, Duffy shooting to the front straight out of T2. By the end of the first lap of four, Learmonth had lost 34secs to the Bermudan.
Montreal WTS winner Gentle was placed ninth starting lap two with a 2:30min deficit to Duffy, but as one of the strongest runners on the course she quickly picked a path through the top 10, moving into third halfway through lap two. Next up the road was the European champ Learmonth, 1:30mins ahead.
After 5km, Learmonth’s gap to Duffy had doubled to just over 1min but she held a solid 1:30min cushion to Gentle. With one lap to go, the gaps were at 1:22 (Learmonth to Duffy) and 2:16 (Gentle to Duffy). Stimpson meanwhile was ticking along nicely in 10th; she would eventually finish in 13th.
At the line, the top three crossed in the order of Duffy, Learmonth (1:21 down) and Gentle (just a further 12secs behind). The only other woman to have won five races in a season is the Rio gold medallist Gwen Jorgensen, who last week celebrated the birth of her first child, Stanley.
“My swim has been a little shaky this year, so it was nice to come out third behind Lucy and Jess,” said Duffy at the finish. “Now it’s all about getting my head in the right place and executing a great race in Rotterdam.”
Learmonth’s result makes her the fifth British female to ever make the WTS podium.
“It’s amazing, I can’t really believe it to be honest,” said Learmonth post-race. “It was hard work but I’m delighted. Flora just corners so fast, so there were some hairy moments. And I knew Gentle was closing the gap, she’s like a gazelle! I never thought I would [podium] so hopefully I’ll get a few more now.”
Gentle’s third position means Duffy has to finish seventh or better to retain her title in Rotterdam in three weeks’ time.
Advertisement
“I didn’t think I’d be standing here today,” admitted Gentle. “Andrea Hewitt and I were the only two working [on the bike], so I’m really pleased to be here. I’ll be going into Rotterdam trying to do the best I can, so we’ll see what happens there.”
Stockholm has proved happy hunting ground for Rio silver medallist, Jonny Brownlee; today’s win his fifth visit to the Swedish podium, including two wins, but this his first over the Olympic distance. His best result of 2017 had been silver behind his brother Alistair in Leeds, but illness had curtailed his title challenge ever since.
Advertisement
The race started well for the younger Brownlee, following in training partner Richard Varga post-swim for a swift T1 and straight into the lead bike pack of seven athletes. But Varga became the first casualty, dropping back into the large chase pack of 25 men, which held series leader Mario Mola and teammate Fernando Alarza, 36secs back, before withdrawing entirely.
Alarza was the next to call it a day, a mechanical seeing him fall back to 40th before retiring from the race.
Following in Jodie Stimpson’s itchy footsteps from just a few hours earlier, South Africa’s Henri Schoeman received a 15sec stop-go penalty in T1 for an early swim start.
It was largely a group of unknowns in the lead group of six alongside Brownlee, only Aussie Aaron Royle and Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt having mounted a WTS podium. But it was still strong enough to hold off the chasers and build up a cushion of 53secs by the start of the four-lap 10km run.
Jonny, who’s won a WTS race every year since 2011, stretched out a 12sec lead over Royle and Germany’s Justus Nieschlag within the first lap, which climbed to 40secs by the bell lap and allowed him to cruise to his first win of 2017.
“It’s been a tough few months with my body not being right,” said Brownee at the line. “I was waiting for it to start hurting on the run but it only started with about 2km to go. But that how’s I like to race. It’s nice to have a race where the swim, bike and run all counts. I was worried about not winning one this year, but I’ve got one now, I can retire.”
Using his destructive leg speed, Mola had clawed his way back through the pack to challenge the chasers, but he had no answer when Blummenfelt made the first move for a podium position. And in a sprint uphill to the line, the Norwegian managed to pip France’s Pierre Le Corre for silver.
“That was such a hard last lap,” said Blummenfelt post-race, “especially with the sprint up the hill. I didn’t want to do too much work [on the bike to save his run legs], but I also didn’t want to lose too much time to the chasers, so it was a hard balance.”
Advertisement
GB’s Tom Bishop was the next top Brit across the line, coming in sixth ahead of Mola, who still has four wins, and therefore maximum points, to take into the Grand Final in Rotterdam in three weeks’ time, where he needs to finish fifth or above to retain his title.
Click Here: liverpool mens jersey
Jonny Brownlee might have smashed it for Team GB at the World Triathlon Series Stockholm yesterday, but next week sees a multisport race of a very different kind in Sweden as 300 athletes line up to take on the epic ÖtillÖ World Championship.
Advertisement
The original race of the fast-growing sport of swimrun, the event is in its 12th official year and on 4th September sees the athletes race in teams of two across 26 islands of the Stockholm archipelego. They take in tough forest trails, navigate rocky unmarked sections and battle with strong currents. In total, the course takes in 75km of beautiful yet challenging terrain with 65km of running and 10km of swimming in the Baltic Sea.
New records?
Suspense is growing ahead of the race too as last year saw records tumble as the winning men’s team, Swedish Armed Forces (Daniel Hansson and Lelle Moberg, both of Sweden) smashed the course record by 16 minutes and finished for the first time in under eight hours, coming in in 07:59:04. With Lelle sadly injured this year though, it hasn’t yet been announced who will partner Daniel for the 2017 race.
Winning men’s team, Swedish Armed Forces, on the 2016 course. Image: Nadja Odenhage
In the mixed race, last year’s world champs Eva Nyström (SWE) and Adriel Young (AUS) are back to defend their titles. Both from a very strong triathlon and adventure-racing background, they competed together for the first time in 2016 and smashed the course record by 5 minutes, despite Eva having had her first baby only four months previously! They’ll have strong competition though, as 2015 champs Staffan Björklund (SWE) and Marika Wagner (SWE) line up as well.
In the women’s race, Annika Ericsson and Kristin Larsson (both SWE) put in amazing performances in 2016, breaking the women’s course record by almost an hour to finish in 09:32:03. They’re back together as Team Addnature/Campz this year and are hoping for another world-beating performance.
We spoke to Annika earlier this week: “We haven’t changed much since last year but I think we both are stronger and have improved our weaknesses,” she said. “This year we have really done the races we have wanted and not done too many. This I think makes us stronger because we are not tired yet of the season. We will try and go faster than last year, but it all depends on the weather conditions etc of course!”
Annika Ericsson and Kristin Larsson during the 2016 race. Image: Nadja Odenhage
Brits looking strong
Being able to train in the Swedish terrain has huge advantages (hence the mostly Swedish podiums!), however as swimrun gains popularity through the World Series races and other ÖtillÖ merit races pop up around the globe, there’s more chance to race than before, which sees international teams gaining in experience.
From GB this year, we’ll see 20 athletes on the start line. We’re expecting strong performances from Andrew Maclean, who lives and trains in Stockholm and races this year with new partner Johanna Wallenstein (SWE) in the mixed class as Team Wolff Wear Swimrun.
“We have trained together a few times this year and did one smaller race together, where we came first,” Andrew told us. “My main goal is time-based like last year when I wanted to go sub 10hrs and Helen Maalinn, (EST) and I did 09:50 so goal accomplished! This year my time goal is 09:30 or under. And hopefully a top 10 spot – although how that goes is hard to predict as there are so many fast semi-pro mixed teams this year!”
In the women’s class, Isobel Joiner and Rosemary Byde are back after qualifying with a strong performance at ÖtillÖ Swimrun 1000 Lakes in Germany. Rosemary told us: “Last year when we raced, we wanted to go an hour faster than the year before and we did just that – by racing smarter and knowing when to keep concentrated, when to come off the tow, what kind of shoes to wear etc. This year we want to go faster again, but there are not such easy gains and the weather can play a big part!”
Watch the race live
The ÖtillÖ World Championship race is on Monday 4th September and coverage starts at 4:45am British time. 220 Triathlon Editor Helen Webster will be in Sweden and presenting as part of the live webcast team.
Watch it live here and follow all the action through social media by using the hashtag #otillo. Find out more about the race series by visiting www.otilloswimrun.com.
Find out more!
Interested in trying swimrun for the first time? Read our guide here: What Is Swimrun?
Want to find out more about kit for swimrun? Read our Essential Guide to Swimrun Kit
Advertisement
Wondering how to train for your first swimrun race? Here’s our expert swimrun training plan
Click Here: liverpool mens jersey
Doping is far more common in professional sport than the rates suggested by blood and urine tests of the athletes, scientists have found.
Advertisement
The study found that at least 30% of athletes in the 2011 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships and 45% of athletes at the Pan-Arab Games in 2011 claimed to have taken doping drugs or used other doping methods.
Only a fraction of these cases were detected by biological tests: at the World Championships, 0.5% of biological tests showed positive for doping agents, and 3.6% for the Pan-Arab games.
The scientists used a “randomised response method” to question a total of 2,167 participants at the World Championships in Daegu (South Korea) and the Pan-Arab Games in Doha (Qatar), asking whether they had taken doping drugs or used other banned doping methods before the competitions. This method ensured the anonymity of the respondents and allowed them to answer honestly without fearing negative consequences.
Click Here: liverpool mens jersey
“The randomised response method is used for sensitive topics. In a direct face-to face interview, respondents would be strongly motivated to provide socially desirable responses, even if these responses were not true. Anonymity gives protection, allowing the respondents to answer honestly,” explains Ulrich, head of the Cognition and Perception Research Group at the Department of Psychology at the University of Tübingen.
In the study, six interviewers, who collectively spoke ten languages, attended the competitions and personally asked 2,320 athletes to participate. More than 90 percent agreed. The athletes were asked on a mobile device to answer one of two questions — an unobtrusive question about a birthdate or a sensitive question about whether they had engaged in banned doping in the past 12 months. The two questions were selected at random. Therefore, if an athlete answered “yes,” the investigators could not tell whether the athlete was answering “yes” to the unobtrusive question or “yes” to the sensitive question — thus guaranteeing the athlete’s anonymity.
However, even though the investigators could not ascertain which of the two questions had been answered by any individual athlete, they could use statistical methods to closely estimate the percentage of athletes in the overall study group who had answered yes to the doping question. The investigators also took into account different scenarios that might have caused incorrect responses. For example, the fastest responses were not included because the respondents might not have read the text thoroughly.
“Overall, this study suggests that biological tests of blood and urine greatly underestimate the true prevalence of doping,” emphasises Pope, who is also a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. “As we note in the paper, this is probably due to the fact that athletes have found various ways to beat the tests.”
Tests immediately before and during a competition find evidence of doping on average of only 1-3%. However, doping agents are often no longer biologically detectable at this time if they have been taken long before. Somewhat better results are achieved with the “biological passport,” which tracks the athlete’s medical data and offers a higher detection rate of about 14%. The passport employs long-term documentation which can reveal deviations that could be caused by the abuse of doping agents. Doping agents are defined as all items listed by the WADA on the “List of Prohibited Substances and Methods.”
“The study brings opportunities for a constructive debate regarding new strategies for combating doping. The randomised response method is a good way to make informed statements about the actual spread of doping,” says Professor Rolf Ulrich from the University of Tübingen in Tübingen, Germany
Harrison G. Pope, Jr, MD, MPH, director, Biological Psychiatry Laboratory at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, and Professor Rolf Ulrich from the University of Tübingen in Tübingen, Germany, together with an international group of seven other authors, conducted the study on behalf of the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) in 2011. The results of the study, “Doping in Two Elite Athletics Competitions Assessed by Randomized-Response Surveys” have now been published in the journal Sports Medicine. The publication also includes detailed statistical analyses in the appendix which underline the significance of the findings.
Advertisement
Related
TUEs and their use in sport
Therapeutic use exemption drugs and their place in performance medicine
The first Mixed Relay Cup was today declared a roaring success. With bumper crowds, global podium-mounting athletes and a natural amphitheatre courtesy of Nottingham city centre, British Triathlon’s latest event was 90mins of can’t-tear-your-eyes-away action.
Advertisement
Seventeen teams took part in the four-teammate tag race, each completing a 300m swim, two-lap 7.5km bike and 1-lap 1.5km run before handing over the honours to the next athlete. With four international teams, it didn’t have the gobal impact of the World Champs, in Hamburg, but the predominantly British line-up showcased the very best of our nations’s talent, drawing teams from the sport’s top training centres across the UK.
The two Leeds teams, although missing its most famous sons due to injury, were still the pre-race favourites, boasting four Olympians between them – Non Stanford, Gordon Benson and Lucy Hall all racing for Leeds II and honorary Leeds athlete Aaron Royle (of Australia) for Leeds I.
Hall’s partner Mark Buckingham made up the Leeds II team, having got the call-up just 24hrs before the race start to replace Royle, who’d been bumped up to the Leeds I squad to replace Jonny Brownlee.
Joining Royle in the top squad was last week’s silver medallist in Stockholm, Jess Learmonth, Georgia Taylor-Brown and Tom Bishop.
The Loughborough I team, meanwhile, boasted Commonwealth gold medallist Jodie Stimpson, Sophie Coldwell, Ben Dijkstra and Chris Perham, none of them strangers to a podium or 10.
STAGE 1
Nottingham’s crowds ‘thunder clap’ did a fine job of mimicking the ITU’s famous ‘ba-boom’ pre-race build-up, as the first 17 athletes took to the River Trent for a deep-water start.
Click Here: liverpool mens jersey
Loughborough I (Coldwell) was the first of the Brit teams to make a move, coming out second in the swim behind Japan’s Fuka Sega. Leeds I (Taylor-Brown) and II (Stanford, on her first race back since the Leeds WTS in June, having struggled with injury in 2017) had okay swims to exit mid-pack. Although a strong swimmer, Sega is inexperienced on the bike and run and soon fell back post T2.
Eleven athletes raced as one pack over the short, technical 7.5km bike course, Stanford the first to dismount into T2.
Kate Waugh, 18, of the GB Juniors squad, kept Stanford company before Taylor-Brown and Canada’s Joanna Brown overtook them both for first and second place.
STAGE 2
Taylor-Brown for Leeds I was the first to tag her teammate, Royle, who did a spectacular belly flop into the Trent, closely followed by Canada’s Matt Sharp.
Leeds II’s Benson with Ali Brownlee’s parting words still ringing in his ears –“Race clever” – was the next in, ahead of Loughborough I’s Perham.
Royle, with a sizeable cushion out of T1 took the bike leg alone, the chasing trio – with a tactically slow Benson sitting at the back – unable to match his speed.
By T2, Royle was 13secs ahead of the trio, but with fresher legs, the Leeds II’s Benson was soon in front, keeping Canada’s Sharp honest in second.
STAGE THREE
In this order, Benson passed to Hall; Sharp to Paula Findlay; Perham to Stimpson and Royle to Learmonth.
By mid-bike, it was a four-way battle for three podium spots, and with a 1min advantage over the rest of the field, the quartet could take the pace down a notch.
Onto the run it was Leeds I’s Learmonth and Canada’s Findlay who had the freshest legs, leaving Loughborough’s Stimpson in third and Leeds II’s Hall in fourth.
STAGE 4
Doing the final honours for Leeds I was Tom Bishop, who played a blinder from the start knowing that he might not have an answer for the run speed of Loughborough I’s Dijkstra. By the start of the run, he’d built a gap of 33secs.
With fumbles in both transitions for the less experienced Dijkstra, Bishop was able to romp home to claim a comfortable victory for the Leeds I team. Dijkstra’s followed him in for Loughborough I’s silver, while Jeremy Briand ran through for Canada’s bronze. Having only been back in the UK for two days, Buckingham did a solid job to give Leeds II fourth at the finish.
“I didn’t think I had it in me actually,” admitted the winning team’s Learmonth post-race. “So I’m quite surprised. But I just had to go max out and try not to get any penalties.”
Advertisement
“Leeds was just really strong, I just couldn’t get across to Tom [Bishop] on the bike, but we all fought fantastically so we’ll be going home with smiles on our faces,” said silver-medallist Dijkstra of Loughborough I at the line.