Triathlon: NZ team protest time aid

New Zealand have lodged a protest to the International Triathlon Union against an innovation which will help chasers on the cycling leg of the Games triathlons this weekend.

At a pre-Olympic briefing, triathlon teams were told that a motorbike would follow the leading cyclists to relay to the chasing group the time between them and the leaders, so they would know whether they were gaining or losing ground.

The New Zealand team maintain such assistance breaches ITU rules.

"By giving the second group on the bike an indication of the time difference, that is giving them an unfair advantage over the front group who are getting no time to tell them whether the second group is catching them or not," triathlon team manager Graham Park said. "You can't do that. It's not in the rules."

Park said teams were not allowed to give timing information to their athletes from the side of the road in triathlons. He did not think that any of the other teams had noticed the rule breach.

The ITU competition jury would have to meet to consider the protest. If New Zealand were not happy with the jury's ruling, Park said they would employ a lawyer to protest again at a meeting where they could present their case.

"At the moment you just state the facts of why you're protesting to the competition jury and they look at it and I think they'll probably say, 'yes there is a valid point' and kill it [the timing assistance]," Park said.

Triathletes were barred from using the sort of microphones cyclists in the Tour de France had in their helmets for receiving outside assistance, he said.

"In the rule book for [triathlon] World Cup, world champs and Olympics, they are not allowed any of those sort of devices. This is exactly the same thing - an electronic device is giving them timing assistance."

Park was also concerned about how a motorbike would move out of the way once chasing cyclists caught up with leaders. "Putting another vehicle on the course is unnecessary."

- NZPA