News The World Rowing Federation (FISA) has declared itself happy with the water quality at Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, the venue for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, following a health survey carried out by its sports medical commission Lagoa staged the rowing test event – the 2015 World Rowing Junior Championships – in August during which 567 rowers from 54 countries nations competed, with 50 team personnel (including coaches, team support and reserve rowers) also in attendance FISA’s sports medicine commission carried out a survey with all 54 national federations to discover if there were any health issues in light of some concern over water quality at the venue Sailors welcome announcement of courses and schedule for Rio 2016 Olympic regattaIn an article on its website, FISA said the results showed that indices of illness were much lower than those recorded at previous editions of the event in other locations Forty national federations reported no illness during or after the event, while 13 reported one to five cases of illness and one team reported more than five cases of illness “Whenever a group travels together to another country, there is always a higher risk of illness,” said FISA executive director Matt Smith “This can be for a variety of reasons including new foods being consumed, the impact of long haul flights as well as the effect of new surroundings and travelling with a large number of people The level of illness at the Rio junior championships was lower than at many other junior championships ”FISA also highlighted the fact that two rowers capsized in the lagoon during the regatta and a group of Dutch supporters swam in the water to celebrate the victory of their men’s eight team – and none of these individuals became ill Rowers and canoeists have voiced their approval of the city-centre location of Lagoa Stadium (Photo: Getty Images/Buda Mendes) The water at Lagoa was tested every second day from one month before the test event and then every day from one week before until the end of the regatta Water quality has been tested twice a week for many years at six different points on the lagoon Testing follows World Health Organisation guidelines by measuring the presence of e-coli and total coliform FISA said that during the championships, the water quality was well below the threshold of concern for secondary contact and was even below the threshold for primary contact The FISA survey said the test event took place in “very acceptable water quality conditions” It concluded that “while it is regretful that any rower should fall ill and miss his or her chance to compete at a major event, the number of illnesses among the teams at this year’s event was very low when compared to prior years’ junior championships ”Lagoa will also host the canoe sprint events during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the venue was praised by canoeists after their test event in September It is a hugely popular leisure attraction among Rio’s residents and visitors, with the lighting of the giant Christmas tree that sits in the middle of the lagoon drawing thousands of spectators every year In September it was also the location for a sports and culture festival to celebrate one year until the Paralympic Games