Duathlon’s bad propaganda

Duathlon, triathlon and XTerra are in my opinion some of the greatest sports ever invented. What happened last Saturday at the world championships though was an uppercut straight in the face of Duathlon. Trying to get out of its bigger brother’s shadow (triathlon), the race created a huge publicity nightmare which it could have gone without like a toothache.

I’ve been trying to understand what went through the protagonists heads, or if you want to reverse the roles, the antagonists. Having read some of the blogs of mainly the Flemish athletes present at the race, the whole ordeal is starting to make sense to me. It’s another classic example of the ruthlessness of the professional world of sports.

Rob Woestenborghs was under an enormous amount of pressure from the Flemish sports council (BLOSO). He needed to make the podium or he would lose his status as a professional athlete. BLOSO evaluates its athletes on a yearly basis and if an athlete has not met the required goals, they get the proverbial pink slip. More or less, you could say Rob’s professional career might be over, unless he finds private sponsors. That’s a tough pill to swallow, and might explain his possible recklessness on the bike during the race. Pressure can make you do silly things.

Jurgen Dereere is a duathlon legend at the Olympic distance who is a multiple European champion. The only major championship that has eluded him is the world championships, ending up as vice-world champion on quite a few occasions. For him, this was the race of the year and thus pressure sensitive. According to information on the Internet, Rob made a reckless maneuver on the bike that caused Jurgen to crash. Fair enough, I’d be pretty upset too after the race.

The protest lodged by Dereere was apparently backed up by 12 athletes. That is no small amount. I feel though he could have handled the situation differently. As Rob is Belgian, he should’ve let other foreign duathletes take the lead or discussed the matter with the Belgian delegates. The result is that he has received quite a few threatening or ill-worded messages on his website’s message board. Apparently, the Portuguese also handed in a complaint about Rob’s cycling, but only after Jurgen. The press has not made any references of this fact.

Whatever took place, the whole ordeal was not only a blow to the Belgian national team, but one Duathlon didn’t deserve. Hypothetically though, and I want to emphasize this, both athletes could have handled the situation during and after the race in a more mature manner. Because isn’t that what makes the great champions, being able to cope with pressure.