The official results of the World Cup 2004
and the case about Bianchi

16^th of July 2004 - In the pursuit at the World Cup in Croatia, June the 12^th 2004, the junior (male) Eugenio Bianchi finished third just behind the two Germans; Cristoph Knie and Lutz Preubler; the following appears to the official results bellow:
 

In the end of the race, Bianchi (in the photograph, while he is in the lead of the group including the Germans) had a discussion with F.I.S. TD-assistant (Technical Delegate) Gianluca Codemo and during the discussion, he invited Mr. Codemo to dedicate himself to "an organization of tourneys for kids". It stands to reason that the kids and the organizer are held in great esteem, but after all it is still doubtful whether the TD is capable of organizing such events.

In reply, Mr. Codemo threatened the young guy to relegate him to the 4^th place, adducing an anticipated start with 30’’. The reason was unfounded, since the starts were given by the start jury, in accordance to the prologue and its results written on a blackboard at the start zone.

That the reason for a given penalty do not make any sense, unless it is a question of a personal revenge, is actually demonstrated by the fact that the official result assigns the 3^rd place to Bianchi; as it is reported by the document belonging to the internet site; www.rollerski.nl; we presume that this address must be the official website for the F.I.S. Rollerski World Cup.

But the punishment arrived punctual with the relegation of Bianchi in The official results from the F.I.S. World Cup 2004, published by Mr. Brouwer in the webpage; www.rollerski.nl.

18^th of July 2004 – The response of Gijsbregt Brouwer did not keep waiting, in fact today the Vice-President of the Rollerski Subcommittee has send us an e-mail to give an explanation of the thorny question. According to what was reported in the e-mail, the relegation of Eugenio Bianchi should have been given owing to a real anticipated start (10’’) and a consequently protest from the part of the German team. While it at the same time should have nothing to do with the discussion between the young Italian athlete and the TD-assistant Gianluca Codemo.

But the fact is that they inflicted a penalty on Bianchi with 12’’ and not with 10’’ as Mr. Gijsbregt Brouwer wrote in his e-mail. Incredibly but true; the 2 mysterious and unexplained seconds is enough to move the Italian athlete down to a 4^th place in the final results.

Mr. Brouwer has furthermore underlined that the results published on www.rollerski.nl is not official results, whereas it is to find on "Ski Roll World Cup 2004 Bulletin".

We would like to thank Mr. Gijsbregt Brouwer for his precision.

        Roberto Tonussi
The Editorial Office of www.skiroll.it

Aggiornato il 31-08-04.