Triathlon cancels Olympic swim training for 2nd straight day due to poor water quality in Seine
Paris (AP/PTI): The water quality in the Seine River remained a concern Monday as officials called off the swimming portion of an Olympic triathlon training session for a second straight day.
Event organizers overseeing the event at the Paris Games are optimistic that triathletes will be able to swim in the city's famed waterway when the competition starts on Tuesday. The sport's governing body World Triathlon and its medical team, along with city officials, are banking on sunny weather and higher temperatures over the course of the next 36 hours to improve the water quality and bring it below the necessary limits to stage the swim portion of a race that also includes biking and running.
World Triathlon made the decision to cancel the swim workout early Monday following a meeting over water quality. The representatives for Paris 2024 and triathlon's international federation said tests conducted in the Seine on Sunday showed water quality levels leading into the training session that “did not provide sufficient guarantees to allow the event to be held.” The delegation said this was due to the recent rain that impacted Friday's opening ceremony.
Swimming in the Seine has been banned for over a century in big part because of the poor water quality. Organizers have invested 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) to prepare the river ahead of the Olympics. In addition to the swimming port of the triathlon Tuesday and Wednesday, the Seine will be used for the marathon swimming competitions on Aug. 8 and 9.
Daily water quality tests in early June indicated unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria, followed by recent improvements. Some of the measures put in place to improve the water quality include the construction of a giant basin to capture excess rainwater and keep wastewater from flowing into the river, renovating sewer infrastructure and upgrading wastewater treatment plants.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo went for a famous swim in the river less than two weeks before Olympic events were set to start, fulfilling a promise to show that the long-polluted waterway was clean enough to host swimming competitions.
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J-K: Six held with drugs, assets worth Rs 73 lakh attached in Udhampur
Jammu (PTI): Six persons were taken into custody during an intensified anti-narcotics crackdown, with police recovering contraband substances and over Rs 23 lakh in Doda and Kathua districts of Jammu and Kashmir, police said on Monday.
In a parallel action, properties worth over Rs 73 lakh linked to drug peddlers were also attached in Udhampur district under relevant legal provisions, the police said.
Additional Superintendent of Police, Doda, Mohd Aslam said three persons, including a woman, were detained during a raid on a house at Dak Mohalla in the main town following recovery of 85 grams of suspected brown sugar and over Rs 23 lakh on Sunday evening.
He identified the woman as Zareena Begum, stating that she had been under police surveillance following inputs indicating her involvement in drug peddling.
Besides Zareena, officials said her daughter and son-in-law were also picked up by police during the raid.
“We have taken three individuals into custody. Their roles are being examined, and based on that, arrests will be made. We are continuing raids at other suspected locations,” Aslam said.
Three drug peddlers --Pardeep Singh of Hiranagar, Rahees Butt of Billawar and Ali Sen of Amritsar (Punjab) -- were arrested along with heroin at different places in Kathua district, a police spokesman said.
He said while 2.79 gm of heroin was seized from Singh, 2.66 gm were recovered Butt. Similarly, 303 gm of heroin was seized from Sen who was intercepted near Berrian-Pattan village while moving in a private car from Bhagthali to Maggar Khad on the Jammu-Pathankot highway.
All the three were booked under the NDPS Act and further investigations are on, the spokesman said.
In Udhampur, the spokesman said properties worth Rs 73 lakh were attached in two separate cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
The attached properties included a newly constructed residential house, a car, a motorcycle and a mobile phone with a total value of Rs 65 Lakh, belonging to accused Saif Ali who was booked under the NDPS case in Majalta area early this year, he said.
In another action, movable property worth Rs 8 lakh comprising a car, belonging to accused Danish Butt of Doda has been attached under Section 68(F) NDPS Act in connection with an FIR registered at Rehambal police station, the spokesman said.
