(Holger Spiegel is a former Ultraman Champion who also co-produces the terrific German website 3athlon.org. He writes in response to a column our publisher Dan Empfield wrote called Germanspin.)

So the basic bottom line of Dan Empfield's comment on the news about the long distance race date clashes in Germany is that he won' t buy the Ironman Germany press release team's claim that they had no chance but take the date which is traditionally occupied by the long distance race in Roth.

He is citing the following from the Frankfurt Press release: "According to the rules of the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) there mustn't be two Ironman events during one weekend," without mentioning the rest of the sentence that states, "especially when these races take place in the same geographical region like it is the case for Ironman France and Ironman Germany."

By reading a bit more carefully he would have been able to conclude that the situation of having two races on two different continents separated by a decent 8-hour flight shouldn't seriously be compared with two races within a 250 Miles distance in central Europe.

So Mr. Quintana Roo might have a point in wondering why the two large German long distance races didn't come up with a good solution before going to the public, but he should accept the fact that there are at least a few serious reasons for the organization team in Frankfurt to chose the date they have chosen now.

Since it was pretty obvious that a decision like this would create some negative publicity for all parties involved, after all the animosities that have been going on between fans and followers of each of the two events, it should be clear that it wasn't an easy decision to make.

The problem was further increased by the fact that the Roth people did not want to look for a solution in a round table meeting that has been proposed by IM Germany and the DTU.

I'm a real fan of the race in Roth, its spectators and its superb organization, but I still try to keep at least unbiased towards the new Ironman Germany. Let's give it a chance this year and see what's going to happen. Maybe the last word isn't spoken in the date clash issue yet.

I hope in the end there will be a friendly co-existence of the two races and it will be good to have those two races in Germany. The least we need over here to solve this problem is unconstructive, emotional and unqualified comments from whomever. This doesn' t help anybody and just makes it more difficult for all the involved egos to keep their face.

But sometimes even journalists or insiders want to play hardball, even if its only to make a quick, cheap point in somebody else's game.

(NOTE: Our publisher's response comes on Slowtwitch's Forum, as of 6/5/02 (which means it will rotate off the forum within a week of that date).