Jake Birtwhistle has revealed that he has struggled with sickness since WTCS Sunderland.
The reason for his illness, though, appears to be a fairly open and shut case. He shared that the E.coli (Escherichia coli) levels in the water in Sunderland dramatically exceeded the permitted levels for athletes to safely compete.
Similar information was also shared on Twitter by Tim Heming.
On 26th July, three days before the racing, the E.coli levels stood at 3900 (colonies/100ml). Although there had no been indication of such high levels in the weeks leading up to the event, the reading should have given the organisers pause for thought.
World Triathlon has an E.coli limit of 250 in place. Should levels exceed that threshold, the swim should be cancelled in the interests of athlete welfare. As per the race briefing, World Triathlon took three measurements around the swim course in the lead-up to the race. At the first two locations, the readings came out at 31 and 72. However, at the third location, the reading came out at 220.
The risk of E.coli was therefore known prior to the event, although it had not quite met World Triathlon’s threshold. However, the figure of 3900 came from the UK Environment Agency which equally could have informed World Triathlon’s decision.
In World Triathlon’s assessment, they also noted the Enterococci levels were at 19, 50 and 62: under the permitted threshold of 100. On both the 10th and 26th July, however, the Enterococci levels at Roker Beach were 120 and 100, respectively, as per the UK Environment Agency.
Enterococci are typically bacteria from raw sewage, the pumping of which into public waterways has been a particular problem in the UK without any meaningful solution in sight.
Birtwhistle was not the only athlete to get sick after racing. The American and New Zealand Mixed Team Relays had to be switched at the last minute due to team illness. Moreover Lena Meißner is another athlete to have revealed that she has suffered with sickness since racing in Sunderland.
As already mentioned, World Triathlon’s own measurements permitted the swim to go ahead at WTCS Sunderland. The decision to proceed with the swim, however, indicates that there may be a flaw in either their measurement process or the allowed threshold.
Swim cancellations are not new. It happened at the European Championships in Madrid earlier in the year as well as WTCS Montreal last year.
World Triathlon may have been reluctant to cancel after the criticism of the decision in Madrid. Although, much of that stemmed from the flip-flopping of the organisers who said the swim would not be cancelled only to cancel it the following morning.
With sickness hitting a number of athletes, it appears that something went wrong with the water assessment process prior to the race.
Or, to put it in Birtwhistle’s words, “I guess that’s what happens when you swim in shit”.
