Europe Triathlon

The summer racing has finished. The winter triathletes are carefully checking the weather reports and now, during the colder months, with longer night and shorter days, it is time for ETU to re-charge its batteries.

Part of this re-charging process is the investment of time and resources in the continuing development of officials and coaches and of course athletes.

Our Development Committee has been incredibly busy over the past years and has done so much to encourage newer federations to invest in their younger athletes. We have seen exciting results too, with a new generation featuring in the results and rankings.

If we look at the Nation Rankings, a combined set of results based upon the best three male and best three female from each federation we see that Hungary have marked a fantastic end of season result by topping the table. Great Britain came in second place but Austria, with Pia Totschnig, will be delighted with their third place.

The Development Committee met last weekend in Brussels. It was hard work with a packed agenda but the future looks good and the solid foundation that has been created will continue to deliver into 2017 and beyond.

The next great opportunity for Coaches will be in Slovenia. The course, starting on 14th December, will run until 18th. Click here for the schedule.

You can find the details regarding the course by following this link

Applications must be submitted by 23rd November. As usual, our contact is Željko Bijuk, our ETU Development Coordinator. So, if you are interested, please fill out this form and send it in before 23rd November.

Over the years these course have provided our athletes with many enthusiastic and dedicated coaches. If we simply take a look at the successes of our athletes, then that alone is a clear indication that the hard work and investment has been worth it. If you want to apply, then please do so using this application form.

Alongside the delivery of courses for coaches, there is an established global pathway of education for technical officials. Once you have built up some experience as a referee nationally, you can be nominated for a Level I Course. Once you have built up your experience by attending ETU and ITU events as a Technical Official you can qualify and be invited for the Level II Course. Just last weekend, the Dutch Federation hosted a course that was delivered by Stefane Mauris and Duncan Hough.

We don’t have a full list of participants but Duncan has told us that there were course delegates from the Netherlands, Britain, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden, Hungary and that little known country in Europe called Brazil. In all there were 26 candidates ranging from those who have been Race Referee at WTS Events, TDs at European events looking to reaccredit to those who were looking to take the next step up in their Technical Officials or Event Organisers pathway.

We are fortunate that we can hear directly from some of the course delegates. From Lithuania, there were two officials; Paulius Poviliunas and Alexander Kochetkov. Both Paulius and “Sasha” attended the Level I Course back in Kupiškis. Since then they have been working hard to build their levels of experience by working at various events. Paulius even attended the Level I Course this year in January in Otepää just to see how the course had evolved. He proved to be a great asset on the course; explaining some of the more complicated aspects and illustrating them with examples he had encountered himself. Sasha proved to be a solid partner when the Sochi Level I Course was delivered; moving effortlessly between English and Russian.

For Paulius, “The ITU level 2 seminar was a first for me and at the beginning of the course on Saturday I felt very clearly that is a wholly different experience from level 1. We were given a detailed presentation of the EOM (Event Organiser’s Manual), the responsibilities of a Level II Official were explained in detail and we were told just what it is like to be a TD, with all the communication with LOC, other Technical Officials and how a Level II Technical Official represents ETU / ITU. We were also shown all the documents needed for any race. It was made very clear to us just how all those things are so vital to know and understand in order to be a good Level II Technical Official. So for 2 days we were learning all those things, but the good thing about the course is that it wasn’t just theoretical.  We analysed every section very thoroughly with practical sessions. For me a lot of the information was new; such as how to make safer swim, bike and run courses; how much planning is needed to make safe races; all the documents needed, like water quality tests, tide tables even the very small but very important things, such as knowing how to avoid congestion near first buoy, how to make safe a narrow bike course turn and a lot more. In the practical sessions all TOs shared their experiences and from them I tried to learn as much information as possible, because other TOs’ knowledge is so very valuable. Their experience was like gold to me. In the end I came away knowing that I need to learn much more than I thought I knew and with that came the realisation that now attention to detail has to be far more intense.”

Sasha agreed with Paulius, “It was a tough, packed with information course. And the exam is even more complex. How can you explain to the outsider ‘what do I do as a TO?’ After completing Level 1 course I used to say ‘I know the rules of triathlon and I ensure that the rules are applied correctly for the athletes to have a fair game.’ After completing the Level 2 course I will use the analogy with an iceberg. Rules are only the top (visible) part of it. The rest is unseen to the athletes and general public but is absolutely and extremely necessary for the athletes, coaches and spectators to ensure that they have the experience of their lifetime. Tides, course setups, medical and dozens of other plans, relationships with the organizers are all the components of triathlon events and it is up to us TOs (and even more TDs) if it is successful or not.”

We also get to hear from at least one of the women who were on the course. Britain’s Bex Stubbings is well-known in the UK and in recent years, has become a regular on the ETU circuit. Now back in England and with the post-course examination to complete, she took time to share her thoughts, “The course was a real eye-opener as to how much more we have to learn, but it also made me realise how much I have learnt in the last few years. It was fantastic to be with such an experienced group of officials and guided through by Duncan and Stefane whose experience and knowledge was incredible. The course was a lot of hard work, but enjoyable and I feel that the exam at the end will really help to put our new knowledge into practice.”

From England came Kev Gregory, “The ITU Level II course was hard work but also very rewarding and inspiring in terms of looking at events from a different and much more detailed perspective guided by expert facilitators fresh from Rio! The course was truly international in nature with the group consisting of a mixture of Technical Officials and event organisers undertaking the course for the first time coupled with seasoned Level II Officials revalidating their status. The mix of nations and experiences in a range of events made for a great learning environment with lots of practical scenarios in which we could explore, critically discuss and apply what it takes to organise world class and inspiring events for athletes, spectators and communities. The course rounded off with an exam to complete at home which is a really interesting case study to allow us to put the course into practice straight away.”

From Germany, Jan Philipp Krawczyk. “The course was great! It is always so good to meet everybody! The course has developed a lot in the past four years between my first time on a Level II course and this time to renew it. You can see that triathlon is becoming more professional with such big steps that being a TD is a huge task and requires a lot of knowledge and personal involvement to contribute one’s fair part to the rapid growth and professionalism of our great sport. I would truly say that today’s Level II has the demands that pretty much featured on the Level III course some ten years ago! ITU does a great deal with very good courses and above all very professional facilitators that can share a huge amount of experience. Combined with a mixture of Level II renewing the level and new Level II candidates, the contents of the course are discussed from various angles and this really helps everyone to learn a great deal and to develop personally.”

If you are interested in becoming a technical official, then check out this link for all the information you will need about this area of development.