It’s possible; Iraq was fairly chilled back then 
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World Athletics has a strict set of criteria that a course must meet before a performance can be “considered eligible for top lists, entry standards, world rankings and world records.” The courses need to hold a valid International Course Measurement Certificate, can’t be too far apart if they are a point-to-point course (can’t be further apart than 50% of the race distance) or have an elevation drop of more than 1 m per km. It seems doubtful that triathlon’s organizing bodies have much interest in trying to enforce any similar types of criteria at triathlon races