Unless you read espn.com thrice a day, you wouldn’t know who Kathryn Bertine is from Eve. Bertine is a former competitive ice skater turned professional triathlete as well as an accomplished author (more on this later) and is currently trying to earn a trip to the Beijing Games on her own as a cyclist.
Last year, she tried and failed to make it US Cycling team, but that didn’t deter her from doggedly pursuing a spot in the Olympics. She hired a coach, Gord Fraser, a former Tour de France rider, to train her despite having no country to represent. What she did was go to the UCI website and looked for all the member countries that had no women’s cycling teams and wrote each one of them an email requesting for a citizenship in exchange for representing them for the Olympics.
Only one country answered and it was the small Caribbean country of St. Kitts and Nevis. I always believed that my geography was above average, but it was the first time that I heard about the country. Trinidad and Tobago, yes, St. Kitts and Nevis never!
Anyway, Bertine now has a dual citizenship and will represent St. Kitts and Nevis in the Olympics if she garners enough qualifying points. To get the points, she has to get into a team, have the team invited to a UCI sanctioned race and finish as high as she can to get the points she needed.
The races are all over the world- China, US, South America, Europe. Which begs the question, where did she get the money to pay for all of these things? Where else but from the most powerful sports cable network on the world, ESPN, were she works. ESPN is financing this sort of documentary on how to get to the Olympics at all cost, albeit legally. Without the deep pockets of ESPN, I doubt if Bertine would be able to do this.
As of today, Bertine still has not enough points to qualify. But it would be very interesting if she qualifies. This would be the equivalent of the “Truman Show”.
Speaking of the Olympics, this once-in-every-four-year event has lost its luster. I think that the major sports leagues in the US and the World Cup has surpassed the Games’s importance. Gone were the days when you could name an athlete who was going the Olympics like I used to know Carl Lewis before he won anything. Now, I doubt if you can name one athlete going to Beijing who is not a member of the US Basketball team.
NOB’S 4th 10-MILER
I’d like to invite everyone to the 4th edition of this 10-Miler ITT this weekend. As long as you have a road bike, you can join. There is a category for everybody except for the professionals. Start and finish area is still at km 48, Catmon. The best time on this course is held by 1986 Marlboro Tour champion Rolando Pagnanawon who completed the course in 23min, 10sec.
There is one very important note though: Deadline for the registration will be on Wednesday, May 14, 2008. For those who want to join and has been used to registering on race day, sorry, we won’t be accommodating you. You have to register here at www.cebucycling.com, before the deadline. The sponsor is our good friend Richard “Nobby” Clarke, a TT advocate from England married to a Filipina. Awarding rites will be at the Hunahuna Beach Resort right after the race.
REKLA RACE RESULTS:
CAT BI: 1. Ezra Arcena 2. Celing Villarosa 3. Nonoy Abasola 4. Frank Alindao 5. Nanie Quijano. Thanks again to our sponsors: Jong Sepulveda, Calixto Cruz and Noy Abasola.