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Spanish Triathlon Federation submits appeal for Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee to be disqualified from WTS Cozumel

Mario Mola and Fernando took first and third in the overall 2016 World Triathlon Series. Credit: Delly Carr
Mario Mola and Fernando took first and third in the overall 2016 World Triathlon Series. Credit: Delly Carr

After the WTS Cozumel elite men’s race which resulted in Alistair Brownlee assisting his brother Jonathan to the finish line and the men taking third and second respectively behind Henri Schoeman in the Grand Final, the Spanish Triathlon Federation (FETRI) has announced they are submitting an appeal to have the Brownlee brothers’ results disqualified.

In an announcement on their website released late yesterday, the federation states that at the time of the race they filed an initial appeal over the events that occurred, arguing that Jonathan received an unfair advantage in the race when he was physically assisted by both his brother Alistair and the ITU official on the sidelines.

The ITU addressed this issue in their post-race recap, stating that the actions were ruled acceptable by the ITU Competition Jury in accordance to Appendix K, Rule 7, which states that athletes can receive help from another athlete, Technical Official or Race Official.

Translated from Spanish, the appeal announcement reads, “FETRI considers that a correct application and interpretation of the regulations should lead to disqualification of the athletes involved. FETRI believes that the performance of both participants would usually be worthy of a disqualification based on interpretation of the current competition rules set out by the ITU.”

The post adds, “Please note that the situation had an impact on the final results of both the Grand Final race and overall 2016 World Triathlon Series, directly affecting the scores of Spanish athletes.”

FETRI states that their appeal, which they are submitting through the ITU Arbitral Tribunal, should be treated as a “logical defence of their own interests and those of their athletes.”

Credit: Delly Carr
Credit: Delly Carr

Spanish athletes Mario Mola and Fernando Alarza placed fifth and ninth respectively in the WTS Cozumel Grand Final race. Mola retained his position as number one on the overall Columbia Threadneedle rankings and took the world champion title, Jonathan Brownlee took second and Alarza took third. A disqualification of the Brownlees would result in Alarza taking second place overall in the series.