SINGAPORE (AP) — Open water swimming at the World Championships is set to start a day late following two delays in Singapore because of “water quality levels exceeding acceptable thresholds.”

World Aquatics and locals organizers issued a statement Wednesday saying the women’s and men’s 10-kilometer events would start in the afternoon.

Organizers said analysis of water quality samples collected late Tuesday met standards for the competition to begin.

The men’s 10-kilometer event is set to start as scheduled Wednesday at 1 p.m. local time (0500 GMT). The women’s 10-kilometer event, which was to have opened the program Tuesday and then initially rescheduled for Wednesday morning, will follow men’s race.

Other open water events are scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Local organizers said three samples taken along the competition course at Sentosa, near the Singapore Strait, at 5 p.m. local time (0900 GMT) Tuesday showed “significant improvement, with levels of E. coli falling between the ranges of ‘good’ to ‘excellent’ according to World Aquatics regulations.”

Open water swimming was an issue in last year’s Olympics in Paris with concerns about water quality in the Seine River. It was also an issue at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Water polo competition at the worlds is underway at an indoor venue.

The main event of the championships is eight days of swimming competition in the pool, which opens on July 27.

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Hours before the event was due to begin on Tuesday, it was announced that the race would be postponed as water quality levels failed to meet “acceptable thresholds”, organisers said.

In a press release in the early hours of Tuesday, World Aquatics announced that the decision was made in the “utmost interest of athlete safety”.

The race, which was planned for 8am on Tuesday, is now scheduled for 10.15am on Wednesday. Singapore Olympian Chantal Liew and youngster Kate Ona were scheduled to compete in the race.

The decision followed a review involving representatives from World Aquatics, the Singapore 2025 Organising Committee, the World Aquatics Sports Medicine Committee and the World Aquatics Open Water Swimming Technical Committee, said World Aquatics.

“While testing in recent days has consistently shown water quality at the venue to meet World Aquatics’ acceptable thresholds, analysis of samples taken on Jul 13 surpassed these thresholds,” said the sport’s governing body in a press release.

“The decision to postpone racing was made in the best interests of athlete health and safety, which remains World Aquatics and the Singapore 2025 Organising Committee’s top priority.”

National head coach Gary Tan said he and his athletes were informed of the postponement at about 11.45pm on Monday.

“Our team promptly communicated the update to the affected athletes and worked with them on next steps,” he said.

Mr Tan, who is also the performance director of swimming at Singapore Aquatics, said postponements were not uncommon in international open water swimming competitions.

“Our athletes are well accustomed to managing such changes. They remain in good spirits, and while the race will now take place at a later time slot, they have trained under similar conditions and are well prepared to adapt.”

At last year’s Paris Olympics, pollution in the Seine after heavy rains caused the men’s triathlon race to be postponed for a day, after swimming practice sessions were cancelled two days in a row.

There are plans in place should contamination levels continue to exceed acceptable standards, said Mr Nowicki.

“We have a variety of different options that we can use in so far as locations that we’ll look at. It could be in Sentosa, it could not be in Sentosa. It’s not something that we’re planning right now,” he added.

“So it’s bit premature to talk about alternative sites on or off Sentosa.”

The men’s and women’s 10km open water swimming events at the World Aquatics Championships will finally get under way on Wednesday after multiple delays owing to unacceptable levels of E coli bacteria in Singapore’s seas.

Initially scheduled for Tuesday, the women’s 10km was called off hours before the expected start after water samples drawn at the race site off Sentosa island, on the southern coast of the city state, showed “exceeding levels” of the Escherichia coli (E coli) bacteria.

The race was then moved to Wednesday morning, hours after the scheduled start of the men’s race, but both were delayed again late on Tuesday after the water quality levels exceeded the “acceptable thresholds outlined in the World Aquatics competition regulation”.

On Wednesday, World Aquatics and the Singapore 2025 Organising Committee said races could proceed at 1pm for the men’s 10km race and 4pm for the women’s.

Water samples showed a significant improvement, organisers said, with levels of E coli falling between the ranges of “good” to “excellent” according to World Aquatics and the World Health Organization (WHO) regulations.

They added that the regular water quality monitoring and testing would continue throughout the competition period.

Director of Illinois track, field and cross country Petros Kyprianou has announced the hiring of Olympian Garrett Scantling as an assistant coach on Tuesday (July 15). Scantling will primarily assist Kyprianou with coaching the jumps and combined events crews.

Scantling finished fourth in the decathlon at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games with a score of 8,611 points. He recorded personal bests in the 400m (48.25) and 1500m (4:35.54) as part of that decathlon. To qualify to the Olympics, he won the U.S. Olympic decathlon trials in Eugene, Ore. with a score of 8,647 points.

In 2022 he won two national titles: first in the indoor season at the 2022 US Indoor Championships in the heptathlon with 6,382 points and then later that summer in the decathlon at the 2022 USA Combined Events Championships with 8,867 points. Both point totals are his personal-best scores in their respective disciplines.

Scantling saw great success at the NCAA level competing for the Georgia Bulldogs under Kyprianou. Highlighted by being the national runner-up in the heptathlon at the 2015 NCAA Indoor Championships scoring 6,068 points. In his senior year he earned bronze in the heptathlon at the 2016 NCAA Indoor Championships (5,951 points). His first NCAA medal came in his freshman year where he was the bronze medalist in the heptathlon at the 2013 NCAA Indoor Championships (6,017 points).

In the fall of 2019, Scantling returned to Georgia to work as an assistant coach with Kyprianou on the track and field team, where he stayed until 2021. In 2022 he returned to Episcopal School of Jacksonville where he was the strength and conditioning coach while coaching three sports: football, girls weightlifting and track and field.