So much in sport these days is about who has the rights to do what. We all know that the WTC owns the rights to the Ironman brand but it looks like the recent peace between the ITU and the ETU is about to be broken over who has the rights to stage a European Championship. The ETU announced today (regretfully, it says) that it has been forced to commence legal proceedings to prevent the staging of what it calls "a bogus regional championship event" which is being held in Seville, Spain, under the auspices of the ITU. The ETU maintains that it is the only organisation within Europe with the rights to stage a European triathlon championships which it plans to hold in Carlsbad, Czech Republic, on June 21st to 24th.

"This really is a course of action of the last resort," general secretary, Erika Koenig, speaking on behalf of the ETU executive board, said on Thursday. "But we have to protect the commercial properties of our organisation, which represents all 39 national federations throughout Europe." Accordingly, the ETU's lawyers have filed an injunction against the Spanish triathlon federation, the local organisers of the ITU 'regional qualifier' event, together with an application for damages.

More information from the ETU website -- we expect this one to go on for a while...