Could WTC licences record drafting points?
November 8th, 2009 by Graeme
WTC has announced it’s plans to introduce a PRO registration scheme.
Officially this is to compliment their new anti-doping program and to improve the quality of competition, unofficially I have my own ideas.
Simultaneously however they have raised the bar for Kona qualification to within 5% of the winners time and for prize money to 8%. This will doubtless put more pressure on athletes to be competitive and increase the temptation to push the rules and draft an difficult issue we’ve dealt with before. They could utilize the PRO registration to combat this however.
A register or license implies they will keep a central record of athletes including anti-doping results and race registrations. If athletes were to get drafting penalties recorded like speeding offenses on a driving license it could identify and penalise persistent cheats.
How would it work?
One point would be given for a penalty and 2 for disqualification. Three points in one year would mean you loose your eligibility to race in World championship races and more would mean you can’t race at all. Each year one point would come off so persistent year on year offenders would be hit hard.
Will they do it?
I’ve not heard any plans to implement such a scheme but I think it could change PRO racing for the better. With suspensions for persistent offenders athletes would increase their margin for error and persistent cheats would be singled out for putting others at risk.