The Saga continues: Magnus Ditlev re-installed as winner of CHALLENGE BUDVA-MONTENEGRO
Everyone needs a little ridiculousness in their lives. That might just be why the farce of Magnus Ditlev re-installed as winner of CHALLENGE BUDVA-MONTENEGRO is so out of place as to be amusing.
The saga so far (three articles later):
Magnus Ditlev was officially announced the winner of the CHALLENGE BUDVA-MONTENEGRO with the finishing clock reading 03.41.29. This finishing time however was incomprehensible to many athletes and coaches. Although Ditlev destroyed the field on the bike coming into T2 with a lead of over 4 minutes he was not the fastest marathon runner – those honours went Switzerland’s Ruedi Wild and Germany’s Partick Lange. However, the German was informed at the half-way stage of the run that his time deficit to Ditlev had increase to 7:27 even though he was running faster than Ditlev leading the German to exclaim “How is this possible”
Something was suspect. As it transpired the official lead bike the Dane was following took a wrong turn cutting the course distance for Ditlev. As we reported in TriNations first article Ditlev was given a 5-minute penalty for this to make amends for this course cutting advantage and was officially given a winning time of 3:46:29 with Patrick Lange taking second just 00:01:52 minutes behind with the fastest runner of the day Ruedi Wild coming home in third place in 03:50:42.
Phew! Are you keeping up!
Several hours after the race had finished the drama really began to unfold when Challenge Family released a statement confirming that Magnus Ditlev had been disqualified after his victory due to an unintentional course cutting action, after following the lead bike, which became apparent in the final stages of the race.
In TriNations second article we questioned the wisdom of DQS decision if the error was so apparent and why did it take so long after the race for officials to determine something was suspect. More to the point how on earth did the lead bike not know the course run circuit. We saw Ditlev not so much the guilty party but the victim. And determined a better resolution would have been to calculate the time for the unintentional course cutting and adjust the finishing times accordingly.
Nonetheless, Challenge Family, did not see fit to keep the 5-minute time penalty and DQS Ditlev based on the application of the objective rules. Which we believe to mean Ditlev should have not followed the official lead bike, which is a bit absurd. I mean why have a lead bike at all if you do not expect athletes to follow it.
I am now at the point where I have given up trying to cut a long story short and possibly the will to live.
Nevertheless, the drama continues. 48 hours later, new develops appeared on the horizon. Further investigations were carried out on the incident following a protest appeal by Ditlev.
The outcome of the investigation and appeal hearing was Ditlev’s DQS was overturned and the 5-minute penalty reinstated meaning Ditlev’s win was reinstalled. To Challenge Family’s credit, they owned up to the mistake, that part of race organisation they played in that led to the DQS was misdirecting Ditlev.
There, we live to tell the tale.
So how does one summarise this saga – well, congratulations to Ditlev for his eventual win and to his fellow athletes for their sportsmanship and willingness to share the cash pot after Ditlev’s initial DSQ. And well done to Challenge Family – albeit farcically late – for having the courage to own up to the mistake and letting common sense prevail,
