Triathlon families scrambling in wake of event postponement

Some of the Kiwi triathlete's supporters will miss his race for gold, after poor water quality saw the men's triathlon delayed. (Source: 1News)

Family and friends of the two leading hopes in the men's triathlon have been forced to fork out to extend their stay in Paris, while others are now unable to see the race, following its postponement by more than 24 hours.

Organisers will make another call in the early hours of Wednesday morning (Paris time) but already delaying the race has had a significant impact on those closest to the athletes who have paid their way to get to France.

Kiwi gold medal hope Hayden Wilde's brother Hamish Wilde told 1News a group of almost 30 family and friends had made the journey to Paris to see him compete.

"It sucked because we knew a lot of people who were here to watch the race and unfortunately have to leave either tonight or tomorrow, so it sucks for those people but it's just one of those things you can't do much about it."

He said about five or six supporters that were "really hoping" to see Wilde in action were already scheduled to leave by this evening (Paris time), including their uncle.

"He's been over here for a month and this was supposed to be his last little bit of action, but because the race has been delayed he's got to get on the flight tomorrow, he can't push that off," Wilde said. "He's going to be quite gutted about that."

He said more people in their group may be "in a bit of trouble" trying to find new accommodation and adjust their own travel plans if the race is pushed back to later in the week.

"There's about seven of us staying in our apartment at the moment, so its stressful… but we'll know more tomorrow morning at 3.30am.

"I'll wait for mum to knock on the door again mate," he laughed. "There's no point us all being up waiting to find out."

Wilde said he had spoken to his brother, who was a "pretty chill dude", and that this hiccup in scheduling would not phase him too much.

"I think most of the athletes are just gutted that they have tapered for a few days now, and they were getting ready to move into this phase and now they have to change plans a little bit for how they have to approach the race.

"But yeah Hayden's sweet as, he doesn't care when it happens he just doesn't want it to be a duathlon. All these guys want it to be a triathlon."

British media have also reported race favourite Alex Yee's family were unsure if their tickets will still be valid if the race goes ahead Wednesday evening after the women's event, New Zealand time.

Whether the race is held today remains in doubt — with a thunderstorm forecast to hit Paris and rain anticipated for around three hours.

Should the river not clear up, the swimming part could always be nixed and the race feature only cycling and running. That was the case last year at the European Championships when the format was switched to a "duathlon" because of water-quality issues.

Asked if that might be unfair to triathletes who excel in the water, World Triathlon president Marisol Casado told the Associated Press: "It's just another situation of the competition."

SHARE ME

More Stories