Women’s race. What a joke.
That is (not) all…
…as rules are rules.
If we expect athletes to know anti-doping rules inside out, then surely we should expect them to be aware of all technical rules?
Massively unlucky for those two, but well done to Flora Duffy for winning the race
Crazy that they should do that. Stupid rule but one that they surely knew.
Bet Holland is happy now she’s auto QF’d due to her medal in 2016
No she hasn’t, there was a clause in the qualifying rules that said if the race was altered at all from full Oly distance then it wouldn’t count for automatic qualifying
Re. GTB and JL it’s a dumb rule that looks joyless but it is a rule so they had to be DQed (and I’m sure one of the other federations would have appealed if the refs hadn’t applied the rule). And since they couldn’t AQ I doubt it has done anything to harm their chances
Just their ITU points & rankings for the World series i assume? And a little bit of prize money.
Every human element in me thinks it’s utterly ridiculous, but as you’ve all said. You can’t really argue the rules.
that’s not strictly true, it says a substantial change in format and arguably a 5k run instead of 10k isnt substantial. I suppose it depends on politics at the NGB and whether they want to find an excuse not to include her.
The BBC site has stated that as being the fact (wat R0bh said). But don’t know how much actual weight that holds?!
3a.Eligible athletes will be automatically nominated for the Games if they:
i.finish in the top three of the respective individual senior races at BOTH the 2019 Yokohama World Triathlon Series (“WTS”) event AND the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games Test Event; OR
ii.are a returning Rio 2016 Olympic Games medallist who finishes in the top three of the individual event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games Test-Event.
b.The above automatic nominations will not apply if,in the opinion of the Panel,the results of either race (and in the case of returning Rio medallists, the Test Event only) are/is significantly impacted by:
i.a large-scale racing incident (such as a crash); OR
ii.environmental conditions/exceptional circumstances which result in substantial alteration to the race format.
You could also maybe argue that the results of the race were substantially altered by a large-scale racing incident i.e. GTB and JL getting themselves DQed which definitely substantially altered the results!
Rewatched Brownlees at Cozumel where Ally helps Jonny over the line wondering if similar thing, but Ally pushed Jonny over to make sure he’s clear second.
Selectors will definitely have a huge headache now.
And Vicky Holland herself says there was no way she could qualify with the run shortened to 5k. From her Twitter: “Nope, not true. No way for me to auto qualify today without a full OD race. I needed that extra 5k…”
judging by the emojis on her tweet she’ll piss a few people off at HQ so may not get in anyway now 
Stupid to change the QF rules because of a shortened run. no swim , or bike etc i could understand. To be fair she came 5th anyway.
While I’m in the camp of “rules are rules” and should be adhered to, I’m also in the camp that fully backs their decision not to race things out in a sprint finish.
They both had little to gain by taking the win (neither would have AQ’d by winning over podium) but could lose out. In an event where the run was already shortened due to high temperature and with the grand final in just over 2 weeks, they would have wanted to stay as fresh as possible.
Interesting though that the prize money didn’t lure either of them into sprinting, it was a difference between $18,000 or $12,000 - not insubstantial.
Has Vicky deleted this from her Twitter? If you’ve got a link - would be appreciated!
Guessing they’d have shared that, as room mates
It’s that heat of the moment thing isn’t it. You’ve run it all together. The event doesn’t mean a huge amount in the grand scheme of things. You look across to you mate and you naturally reach across and enjoy the last few metres together. Oops. Before you’ve even realised it.
Also, thanks for updating the title 
It’s a major story on BBC News this morning…
…and without a Minchin in sight
wasn’t on “her twitter” but a reply to another post … took some finding for me … try this https://twitter.com/VixHolland/status/1161909213020467200
that was me
Awesome thank you
Maybe Team GB should’ve had someone shouting at them to bloody sprint and not cross the line together then???