Images: World Triathlon
By Kent Gray/Triathlon.kiwi in Paris
It’s one of the early storylines of the XXXIII Paris Games. But water quality is just one part of the Seine conundrum for triathletes about to dive into the famous river in pursuit of Olympic glory.
For the second day, the swim portion of the triathlon familiarisation was cancelled early Monday due to unacceptable E. coli readings.
Encouragingly, levels were down from Sunday after rain in the City of Light on July 26 and 27 and with two days of clear blue skies, there is hope the 1500m swim will be part of the individual men’s race scheduled to go at 6pm NZT Tuesday (8am local time).
A decision will be made at World Triathlon’s daily “situation meeting” at 3.30am local time (1.30pm NZT) on Tuesday. Everyone has their fingers crossed, none less than Hayden Wilde.
Officials are also keeping an eye on the speed of the current. At 4am local time Monday, it was ripping along at 1.2 metres per second in the middle of the start pontoon. That’s within World Triathlon levels, just, and is expected to be as strong as it will get. Still, the flow will have a significant impact on the start of the individual races and potentially who makes it onto the podium on Pont Alexandre III bridge.
In keeping with the Wilde’s thorough preparation for Paris, the Kiwi No.1 simulated the expected conditions when he was training back in New Zealand earlier in the year with coach Craig Kirkwood.
“We had a great opportunity in Otūmoetai where we were kind of swimming within the Tauranga Harbour in this little area where it’s very tide assisted,” Wilde said.
“I would go out as at a certain time and would be able to swim against the current and then come back and swim with the current.
“It was just teaching the body how to swim with the current because that’s a super important thing. You need to slow your stroke down and go with it, not panic stroke.
“When you come back, you have to increase that stroke and be a little bit quicker. So, yeah, it’s going to be really interesting tactically, but also, position on the pontoon is going to be super important, I think, for Paris.”
As one of the top 10 ranked athletes, Wilde got to pick his podium position. He opted for position 30, roughly the middle of the pontoon, with his great British rival Alex Yee within eye sight in position 27.
New Zealand team-mate Dylan McCullough, a strong swimmer, drew No.8, to the right hand side. Interestingly, Matt Hauser picked spot 10, presumably to get away from the other medal contenders and get clear water early in the pivotal race to the first left-hand turning buoy.
The tide is going to be key, isn’t it?
“Yeah, hugely,” Wilde continued.
“The Seine is very current assisted, there’s a big flow going down but then coming home, it’s a really hard task. “We were swimming under one minute pace going down [in last August’s Olympic Test event], and then we’re coming home and we’re swimming, like, 30 seconds slower per 100 meters, which is… it’s quite crazy.”
