ATHENS, 6 August 2003 — Venue tests for the 2004 Olympics had a jinxed start yesterday when Germany’s junior rowing team withdrew with illness and organizers had to change the starting time of races because of high winds on the eve of the trials.
Though the setbacks were the type of challenges test events are meant to uncover, they added up to an unfortunate start for organizers hoping to show during a month of venue testing in August that much-criticized preparations are back on track.
This month will also see the testing of venues for beach volleyball, cycling, sailing, archery, canoeing and show jumping with more than 1,600 athletes from 50 countries taking part.
More events had been scheduled for August but because of construction delays, testing of venues for softball, wrestling and several other sports were pushed back. An Athens Olympics official said about 60 members of the German team were confined to their hotel after coming down with a suspected stomach bug, possibly caught before they arrived in Greece.
The team was to have taken part in the world junior rowing championships to be held from today at the Olympics Skinias rowing venue about 30 km from Athens.
“The members of the German team including the rowers aged 15 to 17, show signs of gastro-enteritis,” the official told Reuters. “They arrived on Friday. The signs appeared on Saturday. It is most likely that they brought the illness with them. It has been identified only in the German team and no other athlete taking part in the competition has become ill.
“The Germans have withdrawn from the competition.” The world junior rowing championships kick off the series of events today but the scheduled 8:30 a.m. start time for races was brought forward to 6:30 a.m. after strong winds disrupted practice on Monday and yesterday.
“This is part of the story for any such event. The team heads met today and decided to bring forward the starting times,” an Athens games rowing official told Reuters.
“Winds usually pick up later in the morning at this time of year so the early start will be better for the athletes, who are used to waking up early,” he added. A total of nearly 600 rowers from 45 nations will take part in the four-day championships. The only test event held until now was a highly acclaimed sailing regatta last year.
