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70.3 Buffalo Springs, should an "amateur" be able to win overall?

Scott AlexanderScott Alexander
in Community Forum 🏠

As I'm always interested in stirring tri-centered philosophical discussions in da haus, the latest being:

Drew Scott, son of Dave "The Man" Scott, finished Buffalo Springs 70.3 this weekend in the fastest time - even over the professionals. But since he is not a pro (yet), the discussion is whether or not he should be proclaimed overall winner.

triathlon.competitor.com/2012/06/ne...ings_56224

There was a similar discussion a few years ago, altho in road racing (running), about an amateur woman who came away with the fastest time - yet was (after discussion, arguments, etc) proclaimed a co-winner along with the fastest female pro.

So...

1) who should be the winner of the race?

2) should Ironman move all races to mass starts, to alleviate this potential from occuring again (altho even in mass start IMs, the pros still go off earlier than the AGers)?

3) should there be two "winners"; one for pro and one for amateurs/AGers?

4) strategy implications, such as racing with others (similar to the other EN thread which I cannot find in regards to it)

5) other possible solutions/alternatives?

Discuss...GO!

Comments

  • Al TruscottAl Truscott

    • There are two races (and two genders in each race!) - the pro race and the amateurs. If Drew Scott had wanted to win the pro race, he should have met the qualifications for being a pro. He's the overall amateur winner - he won that race.

    • Once Ironman went to separate starts for pros and ams, the above became obvious. That only happened within the past ten years. Prior to that, pro women were fighting AG men in the water and out on the bike course (or, some said, getting an unfair advantage in some cases).

    • Within the amateurs, there are AGs, and those *usually* start together, although some races are so big, the bigger AGS have to separate into various waves, which makes true racing tough.

    • Even though triathlon is conceived of as set of consecutive time trials, it is also a race among individuals who generally start at the same time, introducing elements of in-race competition as one might find in a bike or road race. Persoanlly, I like to race against others, and find split AG starts and time trial swim or bike starts not to my liking. So, for instance, I won't do IM Louisville. And 2 or 3 loop run courses can sometimes present issues, although it's usually pretty obvious who's on my lap and who isn't.

  • Paul HoughPaul Hough
    I'm with Al. The rules are the rules and Drew will have to turn pro before he can say hw won one. Reminds me of road racing in England where you had to be preregistered to win the race or any award. You could enter the day of race, be the first across the line, and would not be considered the winner. Those were the rules.
  • manconamancona
    I totally agree with Al and Paul.

    Michael won the overall race, he raced head to head against the fastest guys and he crossed the line first. He deserves to be the winner, the points and the price money for being 1st.

    Drew had the fastest time of the day and can brag about that, but that's it. He is 1st overall amateur but technically all he won is his age group. Assuming the price money was over 25k for the pros Drew just earned a elite license and should go race pro.

    Most running events have this spelled out very clear in the rules and many triathlons do as well. I believe USAT has a rule that you can not win the elite prize money unless you have an elite license and race int eh elite division, therefore Drew would not win the money and would not win anyway.

    All that said, I think was an awesome performance and I can't wait to see what he can do after a year or two of racing pro.
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