Triathlon postponed after E coli bacteria discovery in River Seine

Barbadian Matthew Wright will have to wait a bit longer to make his Paris Olympic Games debut after the triathlon event was postponed due to tests revealing that the water quality in the River Seine did not meet the acceptable standard.

Organisers found E coli bacteria at four points on the 1 500m course 24 hours prior to the start of the event. European standards dictate that the safe limit for E coli is 900 colony-forming units (cfu) per 100ml. However, the four readings taken ranged from 980 to 1 553 cfu per 100ml.

With the waters deemed not clean enough today for the event to take place, World Triathlon President Marisol Casado said there was a 60/40 chance in favour of the event beginning tomorrow.

Adding that competition organisers thought the improvement in water quality would be faster than it was, she said: “We really want this to happen. We were shocked this morning when we saw that it was not as fast as we wanted.”

The men’s race was due to start at 2 a.m. Barbados time. There are hopes that the event takes place on Wednesday if the final tests of the water deem it safe. If the race does not get away on Wednesday, Friday will serve as the backup date. Failure to get the event underway by then will see it turned into a duathlon which would be the first time it has ever happened at an Olympic Games.

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