Olympic triathlons to go ahead as Seine passes water test

Organisers have cleared the Olympic women's and men's triathlons to go ahead today after the latest Seine river water tests showed lower levels of bacteria, ending days of uncertainty over whether the central Paris swim was viable after heavy rains.

The men's triathlon had been scheduled to take place yesterday but was postponed after the river failed water quality tests.

News that the races would go ahead came as a relief for teams and athletes, as well as for Paris authorities who have promised residents a swimmable Seine as a long-term legacy of the Games, with the triathlon a very public test.

Fifty-five women representing 34 countries will kick off the contest at 8am Paris time (7am Irish time), with France's Cassandre Beaugrand and Britain's Beth Potter, two of the top contenders for gold, set to dive into the river side by side.

The men's event will take place at 10:45am Paris time, immediately after the women's race.

Paris has spent €1.4 billion of public money on wastewater infrastructure to contain sewage and minimise spillage into the river, and Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a dip earlier this month in a bid to convince doubters that the water will not make them ill.

The decision to postpone the men's race at the last minute had triggered anger among some athletes.

"If the priority was the health of the athletes this event would have been moved to another location a long time ago," Belgium's Marten Van Riel wrote on World Triathlon's Instagram page.

"We are just puppets in a puppet show."

The gamble that the river would be clean enough for the triathlon was never guaranteed to pay off as water quality varies widely day-to-day, with rainfall causing concentrations of infection-causing bacteria like E. coli to rise.

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