Women’s Olympic Pontoon Draw Takes Place In London
The leading women favored the start from the left side of the pontoon for the swim in the Serpentine on Saturday.
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The pontoon draw for the 2012 London Olympics took place on Thursday, Aug. 2.
The official pontoon draw for the women’s triathlon competition at the London 2012 Olympic Games has taken place, with leading women favoring the start from the left side of the pontoon for the swim in the Serpentine on Saturday.
In the blind selection that was conducted at the Hyde Park venue, the top 10 athletes in the ITU Olympic qualification rankings were first to select their starting positions. After the occupied positions, but not individual athlete names, were revealed on a big screen, the remaining athletes chose their places. The exact spots of the top 10 selections were not shown until the end of the draw.
New Zealand’s Andrea Hewitt was first to pick and chose slot number 55, the very end of the pontoon on the left side, and said the direct line to the first buoy was her main reason for choosing that side.
“Like other races I like to go on the inside, to be on the inside around the first buoy,” Hewitt said. “So that was my strategy, although I think the pontoon is pretty even, I think it’s even both sides, it’s always good to have the inside line. I figure in London I’ve been in the middle of the lake and that was fine.”
Read more: Triathlon.org