Europe Triathlon

Tradition:  trəˈdɪʃ(ə)n

Noun: tradition, “the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or the fact of being passed on in this way”

ETU has over the past few years established a rather nice tradition. Once a year, the Presidents and Heads of the national federations meet for the Presidents’ Assembly; a chance to get together outside the General Assembly; a chance to network; a chance to renew friendships and create new ones. Each year the venue changes and so each year a new layer is introduced.

From Vienna to Warsaw to Frankfurt, to Loughborough and Paris. Variety; the essential element in life and for our great sport; such a very important part of the delivery of events and so very typical of Europe.

This year in Rome we saw the General Assembly and for once it was without being linked to a major championship. Instead, the timing was pretty much when the Presidents’ Assembly would take place.It was here, on the morning after the Awards Gala Dinner, that ETU President, Renato Bertrandi had the great idea of sharing the city with some of the fitter but not necessarily young representatives for the 38 National Federations who had been working so hard on the Saturday.

With sunshine, blue skies and almost deserted Sunday-morning streets, the transfers took the hardy group down to the Vatican and from there, the easy-paced run began.

As our compere from the Awards Gala Dinner, John Levison, posted, “Normal Sunday morning jog around the sights of Rome with at least 5 Olympians and more World and European Championships than I can count. What a way to start the day!”

As this small article is entitled “Tradition” … would it not be nice to organise “sight-seeing on the hoof” events like this in future?