Wilson's Adventure Racing, Multisport & Triathlon Sanctuary

27 May, 2230hrs GMT – Nevis Center, Fort William

The Isle of Rum is a picturesque, remote, and historically significant island within the Inner Hebrides of Scotland’s west coast. As the setting for the prologue stage of the ARWC 2007, it has thrown up even more controversy. I left the island by ferry today with mixed emotions. While I was glad to have had the chance to visit this beautiful little gem of an island in glorious weather, I was saddened and disillusioned by the competition I had witnessed the day prior.

The top seven teams to finish the prologue were all slapped with a range of time penalties, most of them two hours in duration. Among them were teams Nike, Balance Vector, Orion, Sole, Mitsubishi QuasarLontra, and Speleo Salomon. These teams had improper or missing gear, or flouted the mandatory sequence of picking up checkpoints. The race organization was uncompromising in meting out the harsh but necessary sentences for these infringements. Although slower teams copped time penalties for finishing behind these offending teams (many of them powerful, well-sponsored squads which are widely known on the global AR circuit), and eventual decision was made to have them serve only their time difference from the leading team’s finish time.

A couple of teams lodged appeals against their penalties, all of which were later overruled by the race jury.

I have only just learned that all teams would be made to serve their time penalties at the end of the ‘micro-nav’ running section before TA1, at Tarbet Bay. Now dubbed ‘Guantanamo’ Bay by race officials, this spot is but a mere patch of land on the edge of a sea loch, infested with midges, and offering teams nothing more than dry, flat and stable (as opposed to a bobbing kayak) land to serve out their time.

In 2004, when crisis rocked the AR world - in the form of the death of Nigel Aylott at Primal Quest due to a freak rock fall accident - then-top adventure racer Ian Adamson's summation of the situation was that “whatever we do now would reflect (to the world) on the sport”. Although by no means as tragic, the implications of the prologue outcome at this year’s marquee race have exposed a dismal realization. If the current top seven teams in the world have been caught “giving a liberal interpretation of the rules”, or (for want of a better definition) cheating - as indeed they were, for a seemingly insignificant prologue stage, then who knows what larger infringements have they previously gotten away with in races past?

This is not the first time penalties have been given out to the main contenders of an adventure race, nor will it be the last time. It brings up a dilemma similar to the doping scandals currently plaguing the pantheon of professional cycling stars: if top teams are committing the same offences, cutting the same corners, bending the same rules - would it then be worth it to do the same for the sake of keeping up with them? These seemingly superhuman athletes may be making very human errors; but even then, what hope do lesser mortals have?

Can people still turn to these and other elite sportspersons for inspiration and motivation? Are there exemplary sporting heroes we can turn to in this most grueling and character-revealing of extreme endurance sports?

What happened on the Isle of Rum yesterday would indeed reflect on the sport. In this particular instance, a far more disappointing and disconcerted reality seems to have been revealed unto the world.