Swimming South Africa has cancelled swimming again on Wednesday, and has elected to move to a timed-finals format for the rest of the meet.
This is the 2nd-straight day of competition that has been called off due to green water, as a second pipe burst has foiled the efforts by the pool’s staff to clear up the murky green water that marred the first day of competition. After insisting on Tuesday afternoon that swimming would happen Wednesday regardless of the condition of the water, officials awoke on Wednesday to learn that a second pipe had burst in the facility, meaning that the pool was worse than ever.
On Tuesday, Swimming South Africa CEO Shaun Adriannse tried to deflect blame from both his organization and the meet’s host.
“Unfortunately things happen – it’s not something you can plan for,” Adriannse told press on Wednesday afternoon. “There is some perception out there that it’s Swimming South Africa’s fault. In fact it’s not even the municipality’s fault. The reality of the matter is that a piece of equipment broke down.  They’ve implemented all measures to ensure it’s fixed and they’re still doing all of that but it’s no-one’s fault.”
The updated schedule, which will hopefully resume on Thursday, calls for simply timed finals for the duration of the meet. Swimming South Africa has made no announcement as to whether all of this disruption will cause them to alter their qualifying criteria.
See the photos below from Karien Jonckheere; the first was taken at 10PM on Tuesday, where the condition of the water had improved drastically, and the second was taken Wednesday morning after the second pipe burst.
The pool in Port Elizabeth at 10PM on Tuesday night, where the water condition had greatly improved (Courtesy: Karien Jonckheere)
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The pool on Wednesday morning in Port Elizabeth, where the water took a drastic back-slide. (Photo Courtesy: Karien Jonckheere)
They are 25% less likely to be murdered than 10 years ago.
I would trade that for the occasional green pool.
You really do put things into perspectives 😀
Something like this happened in St Petersburg, RUS, at one of the the Goodwill Games or Worlds or something. I think charcoal got into the water, somehow. As the director in RSA said, this is the fault of no entity. Bad timing is all. I wonder if there is a back-up site or facility? Certainly somewhere IN RSA. If it were the USA, and it were held in Indy, they might consider moving the meet to Bloomington or West Lafayette; if at Austin, maybe to College Station or Mansfield or someplace; if at Ga Tech, then at Athens, etc etc etc.
This looks like a when a pool is first filled: water tends to come in green from the sanitizing… Read more »
So do pipes that don’t burst…
I dont think they have that many pools to choose from there. I was just looking at a thread and it sounded like there may only be one or two other pools this size in the city. Those sounded like one may be a resort kind of pool and another was a high school. In fact it didnt sound like there were really that many options in the whole country. One place I saw an estimate of 22. I guess we should count our blessings that we have options. Feel sorry for those swimmers though, lots of turmoil and distractions for them in a time when they should just be focused on doing thier best..
makes one appreciate the swimming venues and health rules in our country!
At this rate, Cameron will be back by the time the 100breast final finally swims lol