Paratriathlete Liina Nuoranne got sick after training in the water of the Seine river and had to leave the preliminary competition, which was changed into a duathlon, completely.
The poor water quality of the Seine River, which cuts through Paris, became an issue again when a paratriathlete Liina Nuoranteen18, the competition had to be changed to a duathlon at the weekend.
Triathlon preliminaries for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics took place in Paris last week. At the same time, the competition was one of the main competitions of the season for triathletes.
Nuoranne had time to train in the Seine river on Friday, after which he fell ill so that he had to stop Saturday’s preliminary race after fighting his run to the finish line. After getting on the bike, Nuoranne couldn’t get anything out of his body.
– My stomach felt bad and I felt weak anyway. Yes, it is very upsetting, but there was nothing I could do about it. It’s a shame that the information about the duathlon came so late and maybe the organizers could have been even more precise with the water quality.
Nuoranne knew that there had been a lot of problems due to the pollution of the river, but he trusted that the race organizers would be able to keep the water suitable for swimming during the main race of the season.
– It seemed that you could swim in the river, because in the previous days the men’s and women’s Elite preliminaries for next year’s Olympics had been held as a triathlon.
Nuoranne published a picture of the difficulties of the preliminaries in Paris on her Instagram account.
However, Nuorante’s thoughts about next summer’s Olympics are hopeful.
– There are obviously going to be more different river cleaning operations, and of course I hope that it would be okay then. Even now, after a couple of days, it was already quite good.
The preliminary races are part of this season’s World Cup race calendar. The actual Paralympic places will be distributed later.
The youngster’s PTS3 class is not an official Paralympic class, which is why he is aiming for an Olympic place in the PTS4 class. A total of 14 athletes will compete in the PTS4 category triathlon at the Paris Paralympics.
– The top five from my class will make it, so it’s quite possible, but due to my limited background in international competitions, it’s not certain yet. We just have to have successful competitions, Nuoranne says optimistically.