Rio de Janeiro: Rio Olympics organisers say the sailing competition that marked the first test event for the 2016 Games was “a great success”.
Officials said all objectives were “successfully reached” in the seven-day event that ended on Saturday. Nearly 330 athletes from 35 countries participated in the regatta, the biggest ever held in Brazil.
In a statement, local organisers made no direct reference to water pollution at the bay, a topic that has attracted a lot of negative attention after officials admitted they will not be able to completely clean the site until 2016.
The sports director of the local organising committee, Rodrigo Garcia, said the Games’ first test came to a close “with a sense of mission accomplished.”
The regatta was the first in a series of 45 national and international test events.
