ITU WCS London Press conference: TRIMES was there!

As you probably noticed in the last few weeks, Trimes is getting bigger and bigger! Look at this article to see how big it is now…

This afternoon (2:30 pm London time), I had the chance to assist to the 2011 ITU WCS London press conference and here’s what was discussed by the race organizers and by the athletes.

When I arrived at the media center, Trimes wasn’t registered as a media for the event, so I went to the table to register and got a media pass for the weekend. I then saw Barrie Shepley who was discussing with Timothy Carlson (editor and writer for Slowtwitch) about US Olympic qualification.

On the picture: Trimes finally meets Slowtwitch (Me and Timothy Carlson)

The press conference was divided in two parts. The 1st part was more about the race organisation. Marisol Casido, the ITU President was the first to talk and she mentionned that «ITU is delighted to be in Hyde Park this weekend». She also mentioned that London has applied to receive the Grand Final in 2013 and that «it’s important for ITU to go back to an olympic site and to recuperate the event».

After that, the British Triathlon President, Sarah Springman talked about how important that race is for british athletes who wants to qualify for 2012. She also said that with 4500 age-groupers, 50 paratriathletes and the deepest field of elite athletes, « London WCS is the hottest event in town this summer».

The race director, Robert Püstow then talked about the few things to sort out for the event, such as the weather, the traffic (this year the bike course goes not only around hyde park but to the Buckingham palace and that has an important impact on the traffic) and the water quality. He assured that everything was ok with the water and that some experts were monitoring the lake since the end of june. I went swimming myself in the lake this morning and it’s fine. The water doesn’t smell too good though… He said that this weekend races will have « the best elite fields that triathlon has ever seen, even better than in 2012 »!

On the 2nd part of the interview, the following athletes were present: Alistair Brownlee, Jonathan Brownlee (they both arrived on their bikes), Javier Gomez who was a bit late due to travel problems and Paula Findlay.

Before the interview, I talked with Patrick Kelly about Findlay’s injury and here’s what he said: « Paula is slowly getting better from her injury but it’s not perfect yet… ». Later in the interview, Paula said that based on the fact that she’s not 100%, this race will act more as a race recognition for next year… She will only stop the race if she feels like the injury has a chance to affect her next big race in Beijing (who’s another Olympic qualification race).

Alistair Brownlee was asked how does he expect the race to go with Olympic spots on the table and he answered that : « people might take less risks or just go as hard as they can! »

Javier Gomez is expecting a really fast race since the course is flat and the temperature is not too warm. He’s also expecting a very fast 10k!

Tim Don was also in the room for the press conference and Barrie Shepley had some kind words for him. « Tim Don is one of the five to have the chance to qualify for his 4th Olympic Games »

On the picture: Me with a triathlon legend: Tim Don!

Here’s some videos that I captured when Barrie interviewed the athletes! Enjoy! Oh.. and no comments on the camera please ahaha!

PAULA’S INTERVIEW:

JAVIER’S INTERVIEW:

ALISTAIR’S INTERVIEW:

JONATHAN’S INTERVIEW:

I’ll give you some updates after saturday’s women race. On sunday, I won’t be able to cover the men’s race because the paratriathlon world cup is just after and my main task here is to coach the 2 canadian paratriathletes!

Vince