The Raid World Championships
Race Jury Goes Before the Judge
Rob Howard / 03.01.2005
The problems started after two teams protested AXN/Nike were being helped by local guides while on the course. The jury found that 3 other Argentinean racers, not part of the competition had been doing parts of the course by themselves or following teams. However, the jury decided they were there “as fans to get a nice experience� and that there was no evidence they’d helped their countrymen.
Then the controller at CP41 reported only member of the team had passed the checkpoint. AXN/Nike protested strongly, but it was daylight and the GPS track backed up the marshal’s opinion, so their final ranking was given up to CP40. (Which happened to some other teams as well.) Witnesses later confirmed seeing the captain return to the team and saying he’d failed to find the CP, but the team didn’t take the decision well … they went to the local authorities.
First they tried to get the local judge to stop the prize giving, then around 10 policemen showed up at Hotel Aspen the day after the price giving to seize property from the race organisation, watched by one of the AXN/Nike team. The police checked all the hotel rooms and baggage and finally took all the computers and other equipment of the organising team away with them.
After Sylvain Thuault explained the situation to the judge he accepted the race jury had good reason for their decision and the equipment was returned. (The Mayor and city of San Martin were supportive of the race while all this was going on.) The organisers have since filed a complaint against the team for false testimony and slander and not surprisingly disqualified the team ... for “seriously un-sportsmanlike behaviour�.
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