Great Britain Olympic Triathlon Team

Dear Blog,

                Sorry about the silence …. My back hasn’t ceased up …. Totally …. Yet. A new personal best performance …. The longest time in the last 50 years that I have had off running / jogging / trudging. It’s official. So fings are bad, with a capital ‘B’. Perhaps the last four days camping in the wet, wet, wet hasn’t helped my recovery??

Last time but ones’ letter, I mentioned an item to you Blog about dishonesty when the dark mushroom cloud descended on North Wales and the farmers saw fit to have their palms crossed by silver by increasing their flocks of sheep by night via some government quids. Well, because my back was not allowing any trudging last week and I happened to be in the area where I used to work, I thought I would pop down to the local river and check out a few of the fields on the river bank down near the M6 motorway. Many years ago when the great gas pipe line expansion took place in this country following the discovery of large gas reserves in the North Sea, a mega pipe was driven through the countryside in North Warwickshire where I worked. Compensation of course was paid to the farmers for the loss of their crops. The pipe went through fields used mainly for sheep grazing and silage production; the soggy fields down by the river where the pipe line sliced through were fallow, a mixture of reed and agricultural neglect. When at work, on a Friday, if I was racing on the Saturday, I used to run a steady ‘5’ at lunch time which took me from work, down the narrow country lane to a bridge used by cattle to cross the M6. From there I dropped down to the river bank, crossing the unused fields, usually ankle deep in water, to the old disused railway, into Lord Aylesford’s Estate, returning to work via the packhorse bridge over the river next to the derelict estate school. Thence up the road back to work and my wet sandwich lunch in the shower!!! The gas pipe line company paid the farmers a handsome rate of compensation commensurate with the cost of losing their crop, some crops commanding a higher premium than others. Guess what? Instead of sheep and silage, the fields for miles around where I worked started sprouting potatoes and sweet corn that summer. Coincidentally, those fields suddenly given over to growing potatoes and sweet corn were in the direct path of the pipe line!!! On one lunchtime jaunt down by the river, I saw one of the farmers ploughing up the fields on the river bank with a caterpillar tractor. Back at work, I asked his son what on earth his dad was doing trying to plough up the rubbishy water logged fields. He laughed. He was planting corn in one and cabbage in the other, he told me. Of course it will never be any good he added, but it paid a good rate of compensation from the gas company. The rate was so good that it had paid his dad to hire in a specially adapted tractor fitted with caterpillar tracks to cope with the tricky conditions. On my walk last week, the fields needless to say, have reverted to their wild useless unproductive state!!!

If that was a little dishonest on the part of the local farmers, it was a case of honest dishonesty which did not affect or cause distress to any of the interested parties. Future livelihoods were not ruined. The same cannot be said of the disgraceful behaviour, in my opinion, of the British Triathlon selectors in their choice of their entrants for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Some of the competitors chosen, men as well as women, were selected, not because they were the best in the rankings, but because they could act as ‘pacemakers’, rabbits, for the triathletes who were in with a chance of a medal. That is downright dishonest. The selectors were quite open about the reason for their particular selections. Competitors at the Olympics should be chosen on merit. Despite the claims that the triathlon is a team sport, individuals will be standing on the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd places on the winners’ podium, not national teams. The British Olympic Authority got all hot and bothered under the collar about allowing reinstated drug takers to take part in the Olympics, but this form of dishonesty has been met with a deafening silence. And the same applies to our wonderful fourth estate, not a dickie bird. So cheating is OK. Get out the syringes boys and girls. Pop down for a pint of the good stuff. Get the pacemakers in the athletics squad for our 10 kilometre hope, Mo Farah, and a couple of girl marathoners to help Paula Radcliffe on her way.

There is no way that the triathlon selectors will right the wrong they have done to the triathletes not selected, so the obvious thing to do is hoist the selectors with their own petard. Hamlet and the others should go along with the pretence that they are willing fall guys but when the gun goes in the Olympic Games for their event, it should be ‘Sod you mate, I’ll do the best I can for me!!!!’ After all, after the event, there is no way the triathlon selectors will know whether or not the performance of the noncompliant performing rabbits was due to a bad day at the office or due to a bad day at the office??? At least an injustice will be seen to be partly righted by honest spectating sportsmen??

                                      Colin