Hector Pardoe’s Training Plan Scrapped After More Pollution In River Seine

Hector Pardoe of Team Great Britain . (Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty Images)

Hector Pardoe’s Training Plan Scrapped After More Pollution In River Seine

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By Hannah Blackwell

Hector Pardoe’s preparations to try and win an Olympic medal have been thrown into doubt – along with the rest of the swimmers in the open water marathon event – due to more pollution in the River Seine.

Welsh star Pardoe is bidding to make amends after his Great Britain debut at Tokyo 2020 in 2021 was marred by a freak injury.

He caught an elbow to the eye from a fellow competitor and feared he had lost his eye in the waters of Tokyo Bay before being unable to finish the 10km race.

“Having not seen my family for years during the Covid restrictions, to have my Olympic dream cut short in that way was a real hard pill to swallow,” said Pardoe.

“It’s taken a lot to rebuild from that. It has instilled a huge hunger inside of me. That’s the first chapter of Hector Pardoe.

“I don’t want to be remembered as the guy who got his eye injured in Tokyo, I want to be remembered for what I can do in the future, starting in Paris and beyond. I just want to reshape the narrative and prove to everyone that I’m there to compete for medals.”

But Paris organisers said on Tuesday that training for open water swimming in the River Seine had been cancelled due to pollution, raising questions over why triathletes were allowed to use the waterway the day before.

The decision — the fifth time organisers have scrapped training in the river since the start of the Games on July 28 — is likely to frustrate competitors seeking to get accustomed to the Seine’s strong currents.

A statement from World Aquatics and the organising committee early Tuesday said that one out of four readings for enterococci bacteria in the river — an indicator of the presence of faecal matter — was above the upper authorised limit.

“This decision (to cancel training) has been taken out of an abundance of caution, especially given that another familiarisation swim is scheduled for the following day August 7,” it said.

Ever since the Seine was chosen the Olympic triathlon and marathon swimming, French authorities have been in a race against time to clean up the waterway.

The triathlon was badly disrupted by poor bacterial readings last week, with all swim training sessions cancelled and the men’s individual race postponed by 24 hours until Wednesday.

A mixed relay race also looked in doubt on Monday but eventually took place on schedule, with Germany clinching gold in a thrillingly close race that saw the US and Britain win silver and bronze medals.

The marathon swimming — a 10-kilometre race in open water — is set to take place on Thursday for women and Friday for men.

The results of water tests were shared with triathletes before Monday’s race, including one enterococci reading that was above limits, and none of them raised any objections, the organising committee explained.

Several triathletes have expressed frustration about the repeated training cancellations and the suspense about whether their races would go ahead.

The Belgian team did not race in the mixed relay on Monday after their athlete Claire Michel fell sick having swum in the Seine during the women’s individual triathlon last Wednesday.

However, Michel said Tuesday that she had not contracted the E.Coli virus.

“Blood tests showed that I contracted a virus (not E. Coli),” she wrote on Instagram, adding that she suffered “three days of vomiting and diarrhoea, which left me quite empty”.

Both the Swiss and Norwegian teams were disrupted by illnesses that saw their athletes suffer stomach upsets after swimming in the Seine last week, but neither made a direct link to water quality problems.

“I was sick for about 12 hours, overnight from Friday to Saturday,” Norway’s Vetle Bergsvik Thorn said.

“I don’t know if it was food poisoning or from the Seine.”

Other triathletes have defended using the Seine, saying they have not been affected and are used to swimming in far more polluted water courses.

“No-one was afraid to jump in. We were all happy to have a race,” German Tim Hellwig, who won gold on Monday during the team event, told reporters.

“If like 99 percent of the athletes don’t have any problems, I think it’s fine,” he said.

Organisers have said that marathon swimming can be moved to another location on the River Marne east of Paris if the Seine is too polluted.

They said Tuesday they were “very confident” that the men’s and women’s events would take place in the Seine.

Read our recent DS story on Hector Pardoe

Hector Pardoe Reveals GB Swimmers Vaccine Plan Ahead Of Paris Olympics

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