This is the original, unedited version of the Reuters piece that we referred to yesterday. Anyone who saw the Teletext version yesterday will realise that this has just a bit more substance to it.

Triathlon - World champion leads rebellion over breakaway

By Steven Downes LONDON, Dec 18 (Reuters)

Britain's leading triathletes, led by three-time world champion Simon Lessing, have called for the resignation of their national governing body's chairman because of fears that they will be barred from lucrative races in Europe in 2001 in the sport's first post-Olympic season. French triathletes are also considering their action after they were informed that they would be barred from competing in the lucrative European Cup race series next summer. Britain and France were among eight nations who earlier this month announced the formation of a breakaway Triathlon Councilin Europe (TCE), as a rival to the long-established European Triathlon Union (ETU), which organises annual continental championship and European Cup races in the burgeoning professional sport, which made its Olympic debut at the Sydney Games and was recently confirmed as being on the programme of sports in at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

A petition signed by more than 20 of Britain's top performers, including Lessing, reigning European champion Andrew Johns and double world junior champion Annelise Heard, was handed in to a meeting of the ruling executive board of the British Triathlon Association (BTA) on Saturday. The petition called for a vote of no confidence in the BTA chairman, Mick English, on five points including his "provocative involvement in the newly formed Triathlon Council in Europe without at any time consulting the athletes". English was announced as the Triathlon Council in Europe's founder president. Despite the vote of no confidence from British triathletes, English did not resign as BTA chairman immediately. None of the petition's signatories, contacted by Reuters, wanted to speak on the record, but one said, "It's ridiculous. The European races are our livelihood, and now that's under threat. The BTA board did not consult us about this move. It's just a political powerplay, and we are being used as the pawns."

The BTA declined to comment to Reuters, but is believed to be preparing a statement for release later on Monday. In France, elite triathletes havebeen told that they will be barred from competing in ETU races in 2001. This looks certain to cause a clash between the athletes and officials, sincemost of France's top triathletes are sponsored by equipment manufacturers Arena - who also sponsor the ETU's European Cup series. In a recent interview, Olivier Marceau, the Frenchman who won the world championship last April, spoke of how he intends to race in the 2001 European Cup series: "I want to do the European Cup because the events are varied and the atmosphere is always is very good."