{"id":555,"date":"2016-08-09T18:11:35","date_gmt":"2016-08-09T18:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/?p=555"},"modified":"2016-08-10T18:36:25","modified_gmt":"2016-08-10T18:36:25","slug":"olympics-sailing-surprise-water-conditions-ideal-guanabara-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/olympics-sailing-surprise-water-conditions-ideal-guanabara-bay\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympics: A sailing surprise as the water and conditions are ideal on Guanabara Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

RIO DE JANEIRO \u2013 Sailing, not the dirty water, was finally the focus on troubled Guanabara Bay during a spectacular start to the Olympic regatta.<\/p>\n

Windsurfers sped across the waves toward Flamengo Beach in a fresh breeze, against the imposing backdrop of Sugarloaf Mountain. Christ the Redeemer, Rio\u2019s highest and most magnificent landmark, was obscured by fog.<\/p>\n

Across the bay, 43-year-old Robert Scheidt won the second race in the Laser class after finishing a disappointing 23rd in the opener. He\u2019s trying to become the first Olympic sailor and first Brazilian to win six Olympic medals. He owns two golds, two silvers and a bronze. He\u2019s seventh overall.<\/p>\n

\"Trinidad<\/a>
Trinidad and Tobago’s Andrew Lewis, right, competes during the Laser men event at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. (AP Photo\/Gregorio Borgia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Charlie Buckingham of Newport Beach, making his Olympic debut in the Laser class, said the water \u201cwas great. No trash. It was warm. Splashes felt good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buckingham finished 20th and seventh in the two races Monday, with eight races to go before the medal race.<\/p>\n

Guanabara Bay seemed to pass the sniff test, at least on the surface.<\/p>\n

The courses appeared clear of trash. Organizers have sent a helicopter over the bay every morning searching for rubbish. If any is spotted, boats are sent to scoop it up. Barriers have been put across rivers to try to stem the flow of garbage into the bay.<\/p>\n

Under the waves, things are different.<\/p>\n

An independent study by The Associated Press has shown high levels of viruses and sometimes bacteria from human sewage in the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not really concerned about that,\u201d Pascual said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been here for a while training and we\u2019ve hadn\u2019t had an issue. I\u2019m just focused on racing. There\u2019s been days when it rains you can see stuff floating around, but it\u2019s like everywhere else I guess. It\u2019s a bay.\u201d<\/p>\n

American Paige Railey, who finished second in the second Laser Radial race and is seventh overall, said the water was \u201cgreat, totally fine. Warm, clean. We were happy. I really want to give hats off to Brazil. I came here in 2007 for the Pan Ams and they\u2019ve done a magnificent job of cleaning up the water and there are really no problems. I\u2019d jump off the boat and go swimming if I could.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is like perfect conditions. You can\u2019t get better than this. And the views are amazing,\u201d said American windsurfer Pedro Pascual of Miami.<\/p>\n

Conditions could change if it rains.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere always have been problems here, Spanish windsurfer Ivan Pastor said. \u201cIt\u2019s a very large bay. There is a lot of current, rivers flowing into it and we\u2019ve seen quite frequently a lot of trash floating; plastic, which is the worst.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pastor said he\u2019s not afraid of swallowing the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been here a lot and fallen and it hasn\u2019t been with my mouth closed,\u201d he said. \u201cKnock wood. Nothing has happened. It looks very clean today. There have been other years here when it was really dirty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Croatia\u2019s Tonci Stipanovic led the Laser class while China\u2019s Lijia Xu led the Laser Radial. Nick Dempsey of Great Britain and Charline Picon lead the windsurfer classes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tweet RIO DE JANEIRO \u2013 Sailing, not the dirty water, was finally the focus on troubled Guanabara Bay during a spectacular start to the Olympic regatta. Windsurfers sped across the waves toward Flamengo Beach in a fresh breeze, against the imposing backdrop of Sugarloaf Mountain. Christ the Redeemer, Rio\u2019s highest and most magnificent landmark, was… Read more: Olympics: A sailing surprise as the water and conditions are ideal on Guanabara Bay<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":559,"href":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions\/559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forespar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}