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Cancellation of TriShave Sydney Tri Series - Race 3 - Kurnell
posted: 8 February 2010 TriShave Sydney Triathlon Series – Kurnell – Round 3
CANCELLATION OF RACE – FEB 7th
In a decision based on the dangerous conditions that existed following overnight storms and constant heavy rainfall in the venue area (leaving flooded roads, a waterlogged venue (the Botany Bay National Parklands), dangerous water conditions and even a run that in itself was left muddy and slippery), the Kurnell race was cancelled two hours prior to racing on February 7th. This was the first cancellation ever at Kurnell since racing began in 1991.
The decision came only after course checks revealed the entire course to be too badly weather affected over Saturday night to allow a safe race to continue. The race was fully set up Saturday, and contingencies put in place for alternate swim and the bike course based on the fact at 4:30pm Saturday the course was doable, and rain at that time was light.
However an exhaustive course check was undertaken Sunday morning when water was found flowing across Captain Cook Drive in three places, with the accompanying loss of some 500m of flooded bike lanes in up to eight places and further checks then revealed wild water conditions at the swim start and a badly affected run course.
TNSW Race Director, Nick Munting, after checking all legs of the race, and in consultation with the swim, bike and run leg managers, the TNSW technical team for the race, made the cancellation call at 5:00am, citing Force Majeur due to the inclement weather, and then sending emails to all competitors at that time; followed by a short statement uploaded to the TNSW website.
The TNSW team first exhausted all prepared contingencies for an alternative event based on bike, swim, or swim, run; judging conditions were and would be just too un-safe in any of the three disciplines in the Botany Bay/Kurnell area come start time Sunday.
Triathlon NSW has invoked a “force majeure” clause with this event and the cancellation is confirmed, with no additional race planned and the 2009/2010 TriShave Series becoming a three part series to be decided on February 28th with the running of the NSW State Sprint Championship.
Despite the best efforts of our race team to form a race on February 7th, there was no other decision that could be made under the TNSW Duty of Care. A safe race was simply not possible due directly to the inclement weather conditions.
All efforts were made and the race was not cancelled Saturday afternoon as at that time it was still possible to safely conduct an event within the contingencies prepared by our race manager.
To this end we remind competitors of the following clause within the race waiver:
10. I hereby agree that in the event of a race / event cancellation due to storm, rain, inclement weather, winds or other 'Act of God' conditions, my entry fee shall be non-refundable.
Please note that this will mean that transfer of Race 3 entries, after the fact, to Race 4 will not be allowed.
TriNSW will however post to all Race 3 competitors; the 25th presentation visor that was to be presented on the day; and this will be send out in the next ten days together with the 25th celebration hat.
TNSW Racing has asked me to thank those volunteers who came to the race regardless, our Technical Team, and a very wet implementation team, who all pitched in to assist in the day Sunday. We also wish to thank the many competitors who did make the trip Sunday, for their total understanding, on a very trying day for our team.
A long pack up of water logged equipment followed the cancellation; and at 10:30am, when our team was finally able to extract the last vehicle from the national park, the roads still remained flooded; as did much of our racing equipment.
Our thanks are extended to the local authorities, and our commercial supporters, who worked with us as the cancellation was announced. We further hope this will be the only race cancellation in the next 20 years, however our Race team is already looking to streamline a late information dissemination process to event competitors, given the early start for these events, and being mindful of the distance many travel.
As ever, we have learned from the experience, and already our Racing team have begun to investigate a faster way to inform competitors of late race changes or indeed a cancellation, if this were ever to happen again. We are looking at a commercial SMS system for immediate relay of information.
Racing will return to Kurnell on February 28th for the NSW Sprint Championship. We hope this will be a perfect day.
Safe Racing
Peter Tate
CEO
Triathlon NSW
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