Triathlon Swim leg and Sewage

S. Goodspeed

Following the rather unpleasant experience of unwittingly swimming through what looked, smelled and tasted like raw sewage in the river Moy last saturday during the swim leg of the Ballina Salmon Run triathlon I was curious as to what safety regulations TI set out for open water swims? I remember a couple of years ago the swim leg of the Focus Ireland tri being cancelled due to the water quality of the grand canal basin, well I'm pretty sure that it would have been a lot healthier than swimming through what we had to on saturday. We were told in race briefing that there were three white bouys out on the course to mark "hazards", I think everyone just presumed these "hazards" were rocks or posts in the water, certainly nobody I talked to after the race knew if was going to be pools of sh*te. I'm not sure if the Moy is always like this now or whether the heavy rain that afternoon led to it but the least the organisers should have done was warn people and give everyone the chance to decide for themselves whether the joy of completing a sprint distance triathlon was worth the serious risk to ones health. Personnally even if I had known I might have still done the race (staying MUCH further away from the white bouys which I didnt even see on the course tbh) but I know of many people who woudnt have and some who spent much of the time after the race dry wretching at the thought of what they had just done.

This is a race I have done for the three previous years and one which I had always enjoyed until this year. Putting the water quailty issue aside I would have expected better from a National series race. In particular there was a complete lack of draft busters on the course. Personally I saw a bunch of 5/6 lads in the top 10 working very well together into the wind on the first 10km and staying pretty bunched on the return leg without any intervention from the TI appointed race referee. The first two lads on the bike supposedly even complained about the group to stewards during the race but nothing was done.

(Wasnt sure whether to post this here or the race report section so mods feel free to move if you want - cheers)

hunnymonster

from the manual of guidance

triathlonireland wrote:

2.22.1 Environmental Considerations

The Race referee, in consultation with the water safety officer, race organiser and TI Technical Delegate, has discretion to shorten or cancel the swim if conditions are such that this is necessary. Planning for the event should take account of this possibility and include alternative arrangements. Water temperature should be taken as specified in TI rules one hour prior to the start and the referee will decide/confirm the ruling in respect of wearing wetsuits. Water quality is very important. Local Environmental Health Officers or equivalent should be consulted for advice and assistance in arranging water testing. The results should be displayed prior to the event. Refer to Competition Rules, for more information on factors that could affect the swim section.

woody1

im curious as to how they could mark the location of sewage with bouys, would it not move, im not doubting what you experienced in any way , personally i think the bouys wouldve been for hazards as you mentioned rocks poles whatever, and the sewage was in the river unknown to them, my wife swam it and didnt notice , and she probably wouldve F*cked someone out of it if she had .... re the draft busters i saw one guy on a motor bike im not sure what he was i passed him he was parked on the side of the road, he came back up past me later and pulled in on the side of the road again .. so maybe thats what he was.. but i was way down the order of things so it was irrelevant at that stage..

toomuchdetail

Agree on the sewage issue , was very off putting , I swan more to the bank side than the middle of the river so maybe it didnt effect those in the middle too much , it smelt terrible ,looked terrible but thankfully there was not taste test !!
Drafts busters would have been usefull all right , one small peleton coming in the opposite direction nearly got creamed by a car that over took me (i was about a meter in from the yellow line due to the flooding on the road). Some impatient drivers on the road .

Brilliant event thou , super club organisation, great facilities and spread afterwards and good crowd. Enjoyed it but scrubbed well afterwards.

S. Goodspeed

Thanks HM, seems to be fairly subjective from the look of that.

@ Woody - you're probably right re the bouy thing. I hadn't linked the two until someone mentioned it later but they could be wrong.

The Liffey will seem like an alpine spring for the DCT after all that anyway. Agree that Liquid Motion do a great job organising the race and were very unlucky with the weather, pity the swim left such a bad taste in the mouth (literally )

InTheTrees

Wow. I cant believe that. Thats the most disgusting thing I've ever heard. I'd have been out of the water in flash I think..