Laura Philipp called for more transparency after the decisive time penalties at the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii.
After finishing fourth on Saturday, the 35-year-old from Heidelberg still didn’t know the reason for the five-minute penalty she received on Thursday’s bike course. “I think the referees must have a body cam that films every race so that you can somehow analyze the whole thing afterwards and not be exposed to arbitrariness,” said Philipp on Saturday in the ZDF live stream of the men’s race.
Slipstreaming and overtaking penalties
Five minutes is just a world, she emphasized. They are imposed, among other things, for slipstreaming. According to regulations, the distance must be twelve meters. You have 25 seconds to overtake. They would definitely have to try as athletes to come together and from Ironman to demand that referees be either better trained or more transparent.
Three-time world champion Frodeno agrees
Jan Frodeno also agreed to the introduction of a sensor, which is said to be under development, to measure the distances between the athletes. The three-time Hawaii World Champion over the 3.86 kilometers swimming, 180.2 kilometers cycling and 42.2 kilometers running is on site, but had to cancel his start early due to a previous hip injury that required several surgeries.
“Of course it makes sense to have something like this in a professional field. That will certainly be as controversial as the virtual referee in football. But I would support it. Then everyone will have their peace,” said the 41-year-old in the ZDF live stream.
During the men’s race, two-time world champion Patrick Lange and Florian Angert, fifth in the World Championships from St. George this year, also had to serve five minutes in the penalty box.
(dpa)