Sport

Rio 2016: Diving pool closed after turning darker green

Competitors were unable to practice on Friday morning as the water caused concern

An expert taking a sample of the the diving pool water of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games prior to its analysis. Red-faced Rio Olympics organisers anxiously waited for the diving water to turn back from a nervy green to classic blue as a lack of chemicals was revealed as the cause of the colour changes. Heavy rain slowed the flow of new chemicals added to the water which was also green in the pool used for the synchronised swimming and water-polo. Photo: Christophe Simon/Getty Images
An expert taking a sample of the the diving pool water of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games prior to its analysis. Red-faced Rio Olympics organisers anxiously waited for the diving water to turn back from a nervy green to classic blue as a lack of chemicals was revealed as the cause of the colour changes. Heavy rain slowed the flow of new chemicals added to the water which was also green in the pool used for the synchronised swimming and water-polo. Photo: Christophe Simon/Getty Images
Fri Aug 12 2016 - 16:41

Olympic divers were unable to train on Friday morning when the green Olympic diving pool was closed to competitors.

The water at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre began to cause concern on Tuesday when it turned from its previous blue to a murky green.

It has remained that way since, with world governing body FINA explaining the water tanks had run out of some of the chemicals used in the water treatment process.

It stressed that there was no health risk to the divers but Daley tweeted his concern after being unable to train for the individual 10 metre platform event on Friday morning.

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Tom Daley, who won a Great Britain bronze with Dan Goodfellow in the synchro, said: “Diving pool is closed this morning. Hopefully that means we haven’t been diving in anything too bad the last couple of days!”

Games organisers were expected to explain the decision at a briefing later on Friday morning.

The Rio 2016 organisers’ official Twitter feed replied to Daley’s post. Rio 2016 said: “ TomDaley1994 As approved by fina89, diving training is cancelled b/c the water must be still for the pool to return to its blue color.”

Rio 2016 main spokesman Mario Andrada told Friday’s press briefing: “Training was cancelled this morning. We need the water to be still so we can clean it more easily and faster. The water quality does not offer any threat to athletes.”