Like at the Olympics: Women's Open Water World Championships postponed due to dirty sea
The women's open water swimming World Championships are postponed in the middle of the night. The unusual timing is causing criticism. Water quality is always a problem – as it is at the Olympics.
Training in the school pool instead of a medal fight in the dirty sea: The unusually short-notice postponement of the World Championships for open water swimmers just over seven hours before the originally scheduled start not only threw the German team's original schedule into disarray. It also drew significant criticism. "I can't understand why such an announcement was only made so late at night," said national coach Bernd Berkhahn in Singapore.
There, the 10-kilometer race, originally scheduled for 8 a.m. local time (2 a.m. CEST) today, was postponed by a day due to poor water quality. The postponement woke German swimmers Lea Boy and Jeannette Spiwoks from their sleep.
"We woke up at 2:30 a.m. last night because my phone rang several times," Boy reported. "Then we unfortunately learned that it was canceled, so we turned off our alarms and slept for a few hours." Training in the Nexus International School pool now replaced swimming in the ocean.
Even as athletes trained on the palm-lined Palawan Beach on Monday, the water didn't look good. Bottles and other plastic waste floated in the murky water. With a view of numerous anchored cargo ships, athletes splashed through the wavy water off the Southeast Asian metropolis.
The reason for the postponement still surprised Boy, who has already won two World Championship gold medals in team events. It was clear that the water wasn't really clean. "But we weren't really aware that the water quality was so poor," said the 25-year-old.
The World Aquatics Association announced that the water samples taken on Sunday, which are crucial for the women's 10-kilometer race, exceeded the limits. The measurements are intended to ensure the health of the athletes.
In fact, dirty water is nothing new in open water swimming. Problems have occurred in the past, too. However, the fact that, after the 2024 Olympics in France , there are now problems again at the pinnacle of the swimmers' season is unfortunate to say the least.
The women's race in Singapore is now scheduled to be rescheduled for Wednesday night in Germany. If the water quality is good then, the men's race with Florian Wellbrock and Oliver Klemet will start at 1:30 a.m. (CEST). The women's race with Boy and Spiwoks is scheduled to start at 4:15 a.m.
The 26-year-old Spiwoks is practicing purposeful optimism. "We're looking ahead. Tomorrow is a new day, and then everything will be fine," she said outside the closed competition area on Palawan Beach.
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