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Chrissie wins again.

Says it all really.....incredible & congratulations to all who raced.
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  • ithurtsithurts Posts: 37
    It was an amazing race all round.....I am still watching the age groupers finishing now on the internet...Pretty inspiring stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • agent_tiagent_ti Posts: 306
    And there is not even a word on the bbc

    What a disgrace
  • ZacniciZacnici Posts: 1,385
    Ah but the Beeb, bless them, have more important things to report on their Sports page like ... err ... Mexico and the United States qualify for next years world cup (is that darts or something?)

    Even on the Triathlon page not a peep. What are these people being paid to do?
  • ithurtsithurts Posts: 37
    Just sent the BBC this e-mail.....

    I am writing to complain about the apparant non-coverage of the overnight achievements of not only chrissie wellington but all athletes who have just completed the Triathlon Ironman world championships in Kona Hawaii.

    Our girl chrissie not only destroyed the field to win but also did it in a world record time. This is a remarkable achievement by any standards, in a sport that is the most physically demanding.

    The BBC seems to consider flares being thrown onto a football pitch more needy of coverage on the front page of its sport website. I consider that to be an insult to our triathletes in the most strongest of terms.

    Triathlon may be a sport that is not neccessarliy followed by the majority but none the less the efforts of our competitors deserve front page coverage.

    The BBC should be ashamed of itself and realise that not everyone is interested in football.......

    Triathletes are nowhere near the pay levels of these professional footballers and i have yet to here of a triathlete being front page news for assualting a member of public, official or anyone else for that matter....It is our triathletes who should be used as role models for our younger generation of sport fans.

    Well done the BBC again.......NOT!!!!!!
  • GHarvGHarv Posts: 456
    Nice one...
  • Hear, hear.
  • nivaghnivagh Posts: 595
    Good stuff. Think I'll send them an email as well.

    Come on then, let's see how many forum members we can get to write (polite!) emails to the Beeb...
  • nivaghnivagh Posts: 595
    BBC Story on Chrissie's win: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_s ... 301290.stm

    BBC Comment page: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/front_page/3701180.stm

    My email:

    Dear Sir,

    As per the very brief report on the Triathlon pages, Brit Chrissie Wellington has again won the Ironman World Championship, breaking the 17 - year old World Record in the process.

    Fair enough, it's not the UK's most popular sport, but come on BBC, a World Champion and World Record - doesn't even this trump the endless coverage of overpaid footballers and badly behaved fans?

    Chrissie is a fantastic ambassador for not only Triathlon but sport in general. It would be lovely to see a bit more breadth in your coverage of notable events in world sport rather than red-top style stories about, for example, flares being thrown onto the pitch in soccer games.

    Yours faithfully,
  • JulesJules Posts: 987
    It was on 5 Live as a "quirky" story this morning, ie, not part of the sports news with the emphasis on the "look how far these nutters go" angle.
  • ZacniciZacnici Posts: 1,385
    I sent of an email of protest as well, as no doubt many others did and behold at 4pm the Beeb finally dragged its arse into gear to publish Chrissie Wellington's achievement - but only on the Triathlon page, not a peep on the Sports home page or the news home page.

    Shabby treatment, and that goes for other sports where we as a country do well but are ignored; alas cannot compete with chav millionaire footballers, skanky WAGs and dodgy foreign club owners.
  • Hi,

    Might get a few peoples backs up here, sorry. As a former rugby player (turned enthusiastic amateur triathlete) I've been playing second fiddle to football for many years in terms of coverage. If triathlon was the number one spectator sport in the UK then I'm sure the Kona World Championship race would have made the sports front page and several on the inside. However, it's clearly not. I certainly applaud those who have written to the BBC to try and increase the profile of this event and others like it. I believe the coverage should be better but also suggest it slightly naive to think that events in the world's biggest sporting stage should/could not be their priority. Whilst triathlon is a great sport which I love participating in I would argue it's not the greatest spectator sport.

    On a positive note, Chrissie is a finalist for the Sunday Times Sportswoman of the year so those who feel strongly can vote for her on their website. I reckon she stands a reasonable chance although she is alongside the likes of Victoria Pembleton and Jessica Ennis.
  • nivaghnivagh Posts: 595
    Absolutely agree, but it's also the UK's fastest growing sport and it's not every day that we get a new World champion (well, ok, not new but successful defence) and World record.

    I'm sure none of us expect to see it on the front page of any paper (unless the Independent is having a slow news day) but can't harm to try to increase the awareness of the sport we all enjoy.
  • Trinick

    I agree to a point. However a couple of points;

    The BBC is a public service broadcaster and as such has an obligation to all minorities including fringe sports, arts and regional news

    With the advent of digital and subsequent additional bbc channels there is no excuse for not showing this type of event on one of their other channels bbc 3 etc. It's not as though there was anything else of note on at the same time.

    I do agree Tri, especially IM isn't great spectator viewing for the majority, but a highlights program wouldn't have gone amiss.
  • JulesJules Posts: 987
    Yes, tri is a minority sport. However, the BBC is a public service broadcaster. I'd expect someone winning the world championship for the third year in a row in any sport to at least get a mention on the sports news.

    Where did Phillip Graves end up BTW?
  • JulesJules Posts: 987
    Chrissie made the main sports page of the Telegraph though.
  • BmanBman Posts: 442
    I just watched the channel 4 news, and in order was: rugby, football flares and a 104 yr old lady throwing a shotput. hmm..
  • as has already been said, i dont think we expect banner headlines for a minority sport, but a mention on the sports news or on the website would be well deserved,
    chrissie is a great ambassador for britain and the sport,
    all the brits who competed deserve some sort of recognition from their national broadcaster,

    at one point [i may be wrong] i think their were 4 british women in the top ten.

    as for graves, he finished 41st, picking up $5000 for the fastest 50k on the bike, the expirence alone will be worth many times that but the cash should help with expenses,
    getting there alone is a great achievement, well done to all


    it's very easy to register a complaint with the beeb, please do so & get these athletes the recognition they deserve,
  • GHarvGHarv Posts: 456
    Power to the people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well done ithurts.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_s ... 301290.stm
  • JulesJules Posts: 987
    No mention on the radio this morning when they did the "also winning this weekend" bit at the end of the sports news on 5Live.

    Complaint email sent.
  • bunongbunong Posts: 49
    The only way to get the BBC’s interest other than ‘look how long these nutters run’ etc is to get 220 to run an organised vote through the Magazine and Forum the for Chrissie at the next Sports Personality of the Year. OVER TO YOU 220 – you could design simple tick form we cut out and post in??

    If half the subscribers of 220 sent in a nomination and some also send one in for a friend they might, just might start to take notice. If we only send in random e-mails with the best will in the world we will never get a look-in as chavvie Britain is only interested in football and celebrity.

    On the flip side can you imagine if the numbers of entries doubled at your favourite event – the police/highways agency would have kittens and probably shut it down!!! If they didn’t the ever discussed entry fees should reduced with economies of scale? Food for thought..
  • JulesJules Posts: 987
    I see the woman who was second (Mirinda Carfrae) was doing her first ever full IM distance race. Not a bad first attempt!
  • I don't mean to be negative but I think Sports personality of the year is unrealistic. Tri really is a minority sport, I don't know what the readership of 220 is, but I suspect it wouldn't half fill Old Trafford.

    This doesn't mean that Tri or Chrissie aren't worthy of coverage though. After the coverage at Hyde park I was amazed at how many of my non tri friends watched it and wanted to talk about it.
  • jacjac Posts: 452
    Darts has a huge following and Phil Taylor's win got similar treatment.
    Let's face it a few thousand tri fans might be up in arms that the Beeb don't give it better coverage..but the majority of folk in the UK couldn't give two hoots.
    A lot of the popular tabloids have no mention of it today.
    Market forces and all that.
    Triathlon's popularity is growing and will continue to grow but it is tiny compared to the "big", established spectator sports of the UK.
    Imagine life before the internet? All those guys/gals winning Ironman titles would get little if no exposure. Only in tri mags.
    At least now there are a myriad of websites out there dedicated to tri where fans can catch up on all the latest.
  • MowfMowf Posts: 272
    Zara Phillips won it one year... ,
  • JulesJules Posts: 987
    Mowf wrote:
    Zara Phillips won it one year... ,
    What, Kona? Is using a horse within the rules then?
  • BritspinBritspin Posts: 1,655
    Helps if you are ummmm 'Well connected' shall we say....


    You never know IM are always after that dollar & I hear Zara may have access...
  • ZacniciZacnici Posts: 1,385
    Here is the Beebs response to my email of protest:

    The BBC Sport website can't possibly cover everything and we are currently examining exactly what we do and don't cover. On this occasion, this event missed out. Unfortunately, we have a budget situation at the BBC which means we have to also consider trimming back what we currently do so we have to focus increasingly on UK sports as this is where our licence fee income is derived.

    My response to that is of course bollocks!

    The BBC can't be arsed to report a British sportswomen retaining her World Champion status in a record time on its specialist Triathlon page (3 weeks out of date) yet they see fit to run a ticker headline on the Sports Homepage that Mexico and the United States have qualified for the World Cup. Their attitude must similarly hack off followers/participants in other sports that are not football.
  • diddsdidds Posts: 655
    @Zac: further to your point, it wasn't any different last year IIRC!

    They have left the door open for you now... as soon as you see any report that doesn;pt fit the citewria they have just outlined yoiu can get straight back to them pointing this out and asking for an explanation! ;-)

    That all said...

    CW was interveiwed on R4 sports news thingy at IIRC 7.30 am this morning (if not it was 6.30 or 8.30 but the timing seems to be more 7.30 for me!)

    didds
  • huwdhuwd Posts: 228
    Jules wrote:
    I see the woman who was second (Mirinda Carfrae) was doing her first ever full IM distance race. Not a bad first attempt!
    Got to be one to watch in the future - thats a great result
  • ZacniciZacnici Posts: 1,385
    Didds, my response to the Beeb was you left this achievement unreported for over 12 hours on your page for Triathlon and if you are concentrating on UK news why did you have a ticker headline that Mexico and the US qualified for the World Cup?
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