With the World Championships Winter Duathlon – which just took place today – and the World Championships Winter Triathlon scheduled for tomorrow in Skei, Norway, the main question seems to be how long this disciplines has the right to exist. Attendance is never high anyway and this year does show particularly short start lists.
In any case, the World Championships Winter Duathlon was just won by Norwegians Julie Meinicke (women) and Jorgen Baklid (men). The battle for the medals was exciting, as the differences were small – the gold, silver and bronze were decided by a few seconds – but only 12 athletes were racing the men’s race and only eight in the women’s. Starting in the men’s event thus provided, on paper, a 25 percent chance of finishing on the podium, and in the women’s it was as high as 37.5 percent. The conclusion is simply: that is World Championship-unworthy.
Tomorrow at the World Championships Winter Triathlon, the numbers are not thunderous either: in the elite women’s event, there are again eight athletes racing. For the men’s race, the turnout is slightly better tomorrow: nineteen athletes will race for gold.
