Unhygienic Sabarmati water forces triathlon to the indoor pool
Unhygienic Sabarmati water forces triathlon to the indoor pool: At the 36th National Games, triathletes were scheduled to complete a course that included a 750-meter open-water swim in the Sabarmati River, a 20-kilometer bike ride, and a 5-kilometer run.
At the Indian Institute of Technology in Gandhinagar, however, they have an Olympic-sized pool (50 meters in length) in which to swim.
Declarations
The Sabarmati River’s greenish water has been deemed “unhygienic and contagious” by event organizers, making swimming there unsafe.
Amdavad Municipal Corporation officials have been checking the Sabarmati water quality on various occasions since July when the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) declared that Gujarat would be hosting the National Games.
The findings revealed that the water’s quality was quite poor. Virendra Nanavati, vice-president of the Gujarat State Olympic Association, told The Indian Express that the event was canceled due to water pollution.
We claimed that in rowing, the other sport being done there, boats are placed in the water so that spectators do not have to come into direct touch with it. However, such is not the case when swimming, and we would be putting swimmers at risk of infection if we allowed them to do so.
The fact that drainage water is discharged into the river, Nanavati said, rendered the location inappropriate.
Statements
We anticipated an improvement once the monsoon season started, thinking that the rain would flush out the mud and purify the water. Nonetheless, nothing substantial occurred,” Nanavati, a seasoned swimming administrator, said.
Therefore, Gandhinagar was chosen as the new location for the triathlon at the very last minute.
The triathlon includes a 750-meter swim, a 20-kilometer bike ride, and a 5-kilometer run.
According to Harish Prasad, the manager of the triathlon competition, water quality tests are conducted regularly, with a final test performed about two weeks before the event. That water “need not be drinkable but it should not hurt the athlete,” he said.
For these reasons, as well as its proximity to routes suitable for cycling and running, the riverside in Ahmedabad has emerged as a promising site for the triathlon.
Triathlon was a popular sport in 2007 and Porbandar, which hosted the national championship, emerged as a top contender.
Having the races there, however, would have presented the organizers with the challenge of accommodating hundreds of people in a rather compact urban area.
Another challenge would have been the need to increase the number of host cities for the Games from six to seven.
A Sports Authority of Gujarat official explained that the state government’s crocodile conservation project ruled out any other potential venues.
The official claimed that the reptile is prevalent in many rivers and lakes across Gujarat, making it risky to hold swimming competitions in those locations. Even if crocodiles were absent, a good road for cycling would be difficult to reach from the body of water.
In early September, it looked like the event would be taken off the Olympic schedule.
A different challenge
It’s possible to hold a triathlon swimming competition in a pool, but it’s quite unusual because the best races, including the Olympic Games, are always held in open seas.
At the National Games, held from October 9-11, there will be a triathlon including 32 men from 23 states and 30 women from 16 states.
To prevent bottlenecking, teams of two will share a single lane and enter the water at staggered intervals. Everyone must complete 15 lengths of the swimming pool.
Swimming in open waters is much more difficult, according to Pratap Mohan, father and coach of one of India’s finest triathletes, Pragnya. Open water swimming is more difficult because “the swimmer has to find his or her own line to swim,” as Mohan put it. You can increase your speed by using the wall as a propellant every 50 meters when swimming in a pool.
However, having access to clean water was not the only obstacle in the way of successfully executing this event. The intended route for the cycling competition, just outside the IIT campus, was too rough and uneven for safety.
However, the municipal authorities relaid the section of about 5 kilometers in a matter of days. With everyone’s support, we were able to get the road outside of campus redone in record time for the bicycle race. Prasad remarked, “In the long run, that will benefit the people who live here.”