(Reuters) – The Olympic men’s 10km marathon swimming event will go ahead as scheduled on Friday 7:30 a.m. (0530 GMT) in the Seine river as the latest tests had found the water quality to be compliant, Paris Games organisers said.
“Today’s results were considered ‘very good’ according to the World Aquatics thresholds for E.coli and Enterococci on all four testing points across the marathon swimming course,” the Games organisers and swimming governing body World Aquatics said in a statement to Reuters on Thursday.
Water quality in the Seine has been an issue throughout the Paris Games, with the men’s triathlon being postponed due to pollution. Several swimming training sessions for the triathlon and marathon events were also cancelled.
Sweden’s Victor Johansson pulled out of Friday’s men’s 10km event on Thursday, saying triathletes had fallen sick after swimming in the urban river during the Olympic competition, without naming any.
The Games organisers said they had put in a rigorous water quality monitoring process.
(Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru; Editing by Michael Perry)
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