Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Michael Burgess: NZ Herald Sports Reporter on the postponing of the Men's Triathlon due to the Seine's water quality

Transcript

Michael Burgess: NZ Herald Sports Reporter on the postponing of the Men's Triathlon due to the Seine's water quality · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The men's Well, that means we are less than half
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: an hour away from our first medal at the Olympics.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: It'll either be a silver or gold from the women's
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: seventeen seven's team. The men's triathlon, while meanwhile at the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Olympics has been postponed at the last minute due to
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the water quality.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: In the river.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Senn Hayden Wild and Dylan McCulloch were due to compete
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: for New Zealand at six o'clock last night our time.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: That's now moved to eight forty five pm our time today.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Hopefully they will be competing, but there are more checks
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: on the river's water quality to come. Joining me now
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: is Herald Sports supporter Michael Burgess, who is in Paris
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: for us. Good morning, good evening, afternoon to you, Michael,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: tell us what's happening with the river?
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, that's a big question, I'd say for
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: a lot of people, because we really don't know. I mean,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: what I can tell you is that they've basically got
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: three more days to sort this out. Friday, as far
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: as we know, is the last day they could hold
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: the men's triathlon in the river. That's sort of their
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: final day if they can't. It'll have to be a
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: duathlon where it's just the bike and the run. So
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: they've got a couple more days to sort it out.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: But yeah, this morning Paris time is really unfortunate, especially
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: for the athletes. You mentioned they woke up about five
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: am because they're expecting a race that starts at eight am,
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: and they wake up, set their alarm and then they
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: get the news on their phone that oh, it's postponed.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: So that's really tough for them, I imagine, because you
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: know you're wanting to sleep well then to perform, you
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: wake up all excited and the races and on. But
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: basically there's still some worries about the level of bacteria
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: in the river. Even though the French government spent one
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: point four billion euros on cleaning it up, it's not
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: quite meeting the standard of World Triathlon. So organizes the saying, look,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: there's been a bit of rain, that'ssue, but it's been
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: sunny the last few days, so it should be fine
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: for tomorrow. As you said, eight forty five pm New
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Zealand time, it should be fine. But we still just
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: don't know.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: They must be nervous recks, I mean waking up every
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: morning and we're going to bed first of all, not
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: knowing if you're going to race tomorrow or not. It
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: must be hard if they do go to a giathlon.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Would that benefit Hayden wild is swimming his strong suit
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: or is that one of his weaker parts of the race?
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: And is anyone thinking there to hell with it, let's
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: just swim with the coal II, because you know, I
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: would rather be sick with a gold medal.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: It's a good point, actually, right, because you're only going
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: to get sick later, aren't. You're not going to get
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: six straight away. You know, you get sick a few
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: days later. So I guess there's a point where you
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: could you could always take that gamble. It's a good question,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: you pose. I asked Hayden about that, you know, before
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: the Olympics, and yeah, his it would help him. It
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: would help him if there was no swim, because he
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: is so good on the run and the bike, so
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: he's still good in the water, but he's really good
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: in the other two legs. So you take this form out,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: it only helps him. So it's only a good thing
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: in a way. But he also made an interesting point.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: He said he wouldn't really like you know, there'd be
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: a funny feeling about competing in a trithon at the
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Olympics and maybe winning a medal, But it's not a trithlon.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Does it always be an asterisk attached to that? So
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: I'm sure he's definitely not his preference. And as you say,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: I can't imagine what these athletes are going through because
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: they've waited four years or three years for this and
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure when they're going to compete.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: No, it's and after a billion dollars, you've still got
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: a filthy river. Michael, thank you very much for being
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: with us this morning. It's Michael Burgess, the Herald sports
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: supporter in Paris, and I can tell you that the
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Americans have just taken bronze in the women's sevens competition.
• 3:52
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• 3:55
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• 3:56
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• 3:58
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