Olympics: Chaotic Start for Men’s Triathlon – What a Shambles
Chaos reigned at the start of the Olympic Men’s Individual Triathlon Event. After the starting horn sounded nearly half of the competitors were unable to dive into the water because a media-boat was in the way.
What happened was not just embarrassing for the event organisers but extremely shocking as the athletes who were competing could’ve been badly hurt, maybe even worse, as the RIB sped away with its two large twin outboard motors in full motion.
After the athletes lined up on the pontoon, they were told to get to their marks at the starting line when the horn promptly sounded, sending them into the water. There was just one major problem — a boat was blocking about half of the field from diving in.
The crew of the OBS (Olympic Broadcast Services) RIB, which was carrying media equipment to film the event, attempted to reverse out of the way, but the chaos had already started, as over half of the swimmers were in the water with some even behind the boat with its outboard motors revving at full speed. Danger alarms were ringing.
BBC commentator Matt Chilton said: “I have never seen anything like that before at the start of a triathlon – let alone one at the Olympics. What a shambles.”
Former champion at the World Triathlon Series Non Stanford also slammed the incident, saying: “I’ve never seen that – definitely not in the Olympics.
Another horn sounded for a false start to send the athletes back to the starting line for another start. But that is easier said than done when athletes are submerged in water and swimming away at speed oblivious to the hooters and flags attempting to recall them.
Having swam about 200 metres on the 1,500-metre swim the safety stewards out in the Tokyo Bay waters encircled the athletes on their water jet-skies to force them to return to the start line.
Hear what some of the athletes thought about the incident.
Bronze medalist Hyden Wilde was grieved when his initial start was wiped out. “ I’ve had an absolute blinder of a start and then realized half the field wasn’t even in the water … I was pretty gutted,” he said.
Australian Jake Birtwhistle who finished 16th told the Sydney Morning Herald “It was one of the roughest swims I have been in,” It transpires that in the initial melee Birtwhistle’s nose was broken after he got kicked in the face.
Gold Medal winner Kristian Blummenfelt said, “I saw the boat like going past the pontoon, and I was like surprised that I had this start so quickly, and I saw on my left side that there was the camera boat in front of mid-group…So when I swam the first 50 metres I was aware that this couldn’t be right…I looked at (it) as a positive thing, as I hadn’t been swimming for 30 minutes. It was good practice.”
After the false start, the athletes reset to begin the race a second time.
Even after the shambolic start at the Odaiba Marine Park viewers were to eventually see a sensational race in which Norwegian Kristian Blummenfelt made a brilliant breakaway to take the win from second placed Alex Yee and Kiwi Hayden Wilde who took third spot.
