triathlon
Sweepers and mats: safety first at Challenge Roth
Two-time Ironman winner: Patrick Lange. photo
© David Pintens/BELGA/dpa
The debate about safety continues after the fatal accident in Hamburg. The athletes are demanding changes from Ironman. They have already reacted in Roth. There rises a classic on Sunday.
Straw bales have to give way to impact protection mats, sweepers are on the road again at night, and many of the significantly reduced accompanying motorcycles will be wearing black ribbons at the triathlon classic in Roth.
The fatal accident at the Ironman in Hamburg is still having an effect almost three weeks after the terrible pictures. “It definitely left a deep scar,” said two-time German Hawaii champion Patrick Lange in Roth of the German Press Agency. “It was one of the worst things I’ve ever experienced in this sport,” said compatriot Sebastian Kienle of the dpa. He had worked as a TV expert.
Lange and Kienle raise their voices
Both raise their voices in the security debate. Ironman had made suggestions for a long time. “For me it was just important as an athlete, who can perhaps also make a difference with his opinion, not to just let it pass. But I think that’s the Ironman tactic at the moment, just sweeping it under the carpet a bit.” , he said. So far he has not received a reaction to his five-point plan. “We can’t allow that. We have to stand up as athletes and say with one voice: It doesn’t work that way,” he explained.
The World Triathlon Corporation organizes races worldwide under the Ironman brand. In Hamburg there was a fatal accident on the bike course on June 4th. During an attempt to overtake, an accompanying motorcycle collided with an age group athlete from Great Britain on the oncoming lane. The 70-year-old motorcyclist did not survive the accident, and the triathlete was seriously injured. The cameraman on the motorcycle suffered minor injuries.
In memory of the deceased motorcyclist, many of the motorcycles will have black ribbons on the handlebars at the atmospheric racing jewel of the Challenge Family series over 3.86 kilometers of swimming, 180.2 kilometers of cycling and 42.2 kilometers of running on Sunday in Roth, announced the race director and chief organizer Felix Walchshöfer. The incidents in Hamburg had also hit them hard, he said.
Risk minimization as a goal
Ultimately, it is about risk minimization. Accidents and falls can practically not be ruled out if the athletes are possibly exhausted when they sit on the bike during maximum physical performance and their concentration also decreases. But the main thing is to take precautions to prevent or avoid an accident like the one in Hamburg, which Lange described as “so predictable” and “so unnecessary”.
In Roth, as Walchshöfer had already announced, there will be 40 fewer motorcycles than usual on the bike course. As every year, road sweepers will also clean the entire cycle route – a 90-kilometer circuit – at night. Instead of around 1000 straw bales, which otherwise served as impact protection in tricky bends, impact protection mats are used this year. “The issue of safety is number one priority here in Roth,” said Walchshöfer.
Not only that attracted a top-class professional field to the district town in Middle Franconia. In addition to Lange, Kienle and former world champion Anne Haug as well as the current world champion Chelsea Sodaro, the five-time world champion Daniela Ryf and last year’s Roth winner Magnus Ditlev, there are also around 3500 age group athletes and 650 relay teams at the start.
While many are concerned with achieving the goal, the top stars have victory and something else in mind. “I would almost put my hand in the fire for the fact that if you want to win here you have to beat the world record,” said local hero Haug, who would also complete the hat-trick with her third home win in a row.