Belvo Challenge Update

BELVO CHALLENGE UPDATE - Week 2


 Week 2 Highlights:

  • Namibia take Week 2 with 605 KMs
  • John Treacy racks up 131 KMs by spending most of the week swimming (Clontarf neighbours have complained to authorities)
  • Fiji retain slender overall lead
  • Gannongate continues to rock Belvo Challenge with Eddie registering 126 KMs
  • Over 14,500 KMs done in week (26% up on last week)
  • Ireland lead in Belvo Challenge - 6 Nations

Week 2 results


Rank

Country

WK. 2

1

NAMIBIA

605.7

2

HONG KONG

579.0

3

SCOTLAND

578.2

4

FIJI

572.0

5

IRELAND

560.0

6

GEORGIA

552.0

7

SAMOA

552.0

8

USA

548.5

9

ITALY

534.3

10

ENGLAND

528.0

11

AUSTRALIA

523.5

12

CANADA

517.4

13

SOUTH AFRICA

515.5

14

SPAIN

513.2

15

JAPAN

509.2

16

NEW ZEALAND

502.8

17

RUSSIA

502.1

18

ZIMBABWE

501.0

19

ARGENTINA

487.5

20

ROMANIA

484.3

21

TONGA

478.4

22

KENYA

473.0

23

BABARIANS

461.0

24

FRANCE

415.0

25

PORTUGAL

410.0

26

URUGUAY

409.7

27

WALES

406.3

28

MAORI

404.5

29

LIONS

387.7



 



14,511.7


Overall positions:


Rank

Country

Total Points

1

FIJI

1,042.0

2

NAMIBIA

1,030.6

3

HONG KONG

1,023.0

4

GEORGIA

1,007.5

5

SCOTLAND

980.7

6

CANADA

974.2

7

SAMOA

973.0

8

USA

971.5

9

JAPAN

951.7

10

RUSSIA

940.5

11

AUSTRALIA

935.5

12

ARGENTINA

930.5

13

ITALY

924.0

14

TONGA

911.4

15

SPAIN

908.5

16

ENGLAND

907.5

17

SOUTH AFRICA

907.0

18

ROMANIA

893.8

19

BABARIANS

893.0

20

IRELAND

885.0

21

ZIMBABWE

880.5

22

NEW ZEALAND

850.2

23

KENYA

796.0

24

PORTUGAL

783.0

25

WALES

774.3

26

URUGUAY

761.7

27

LIONS

753.7

28

FRANCE

710.0

29

MAORI

690.1



 



25,990.3


Namibia were the big winners in Week 2 of the Belvo Challenge as the big four of Fiji, Namibia, Honk Kong and Georgia all passed the 1,000 KM mark. However controversy was never far away and while officials tried to deal with the fall-out as a result of Eddie Gannon's rise from nowhere - the so-called Gannongate affair - an even more unlikely hero emerged in the shape (some would say lack of shape) of Namibia's John Treacy. Treacy, whose only previous tangental association with an athletic performance was to waddle around in the latter stages of junior rugby matches, has stunned the Challenge with a score that is almost three times his previous week's performance. "Not since Ben Johnson outsprinted Carl Lewis in the 88 Seoul Olympics have I seen such a pure display of natural talent" said Mervyn Feely, the beleaguered captain of 18th place Team Romania "and no, I'm not implying anything by referencing Johnson and Lewis" Feely quickly added.


14-times Tour de France loser, Lance Armstrong weighed into the Eddie Gannon controversy, yesterday. Voicing his support for Gannon, Armstrong said everyone knows the Belvo Challenge is rife with PEDs (performance enhancing drugs), and queried Pat O’Mahonys performance amongst others? "Eddie still has to do the KMs, so what if he is getting a bit of help, I told Eddie yesterday to keep going, keep doing what he's doing, keep taking what he's taking and to ignore the begrudgers – haters will be haters." Gannon also received messages of support from fellow athletes Ben Johnson and Justin Gatlin. Mo Farah was unavailable for comment.


However the pressure seems to be getting to the pocket rocket from Harold's Cross. Yesterday evening at the launch of his new line of sports and leisure wear – Gannon’s Geansais - he was asked by crusading journalist Paul Crumlin, why he wouldn’t submit to a blood test. The normally mild mannered Gannon told Crumlin he was only answering questions about the f***ing clothes and if he didn’t want to talk about the f***ing clothes then he should f*** off. He called Crumlin a f***ing parasite and a cancer on the sport before being led from the podium in an obvious state of distress.


The other performance of the week where there were suggestions of a doped athlete involved Senior Rugby's Peter O'Beirne who clocked up a total 16KMs against a category average of over 57KMs - easily the worst performance of the entire competition. Coach, Ray Monaghan reckons that O'Beirne was clearly nobbled and said there were big movements against him among Far Eastern betting syndicates. Investigators are known to be looking into the matter.


Ireland lead the way in the Belvo Challenge - 6 Nations and there's an interview with Ireland's captain, Donal Coyle, coming up later in the week when he talks about his courageous decision to transition to a Mens Shedder amongst other things.


This week in the 6 Nations England take on Italy, Scotland play Wales and Ireland are up against France.


€30 Just Eat vouchers on the way to Namibia.


Keep it up - fantastic effort all round. Many thanks to all the captains for their great work - your team is only as good as the encouragement they get.