Unpredictable weather, power failure and Zika go with Rio Olympic diving test event

Sunshine, thunderstorm and power failure are what divers experience in an outdoor venue at the ongoing FINA Diving World Cup, which is also a Rio Olympic test event and Olympic qualifier.

The Diving World Cup is staged at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre from Friday to Wednesday (19-24 February). In total, 272 athletes from 49 countries and regions compete for 88 spots in the Rio Olympic diving competition. The divers also have to hide away from mosquitoes in order to prevent Zika as the mosquito-borne virus is possibly linked to an increase in a rare birth defect in Brazil.

"This event will really be a realistic simulation for the Games," said Eduardo Falcao, Rio 2016 competition services manager. Staff from 36 departments of the Rio 2016 organizing committee will be action alongside 462 volunteers. All operations related to the competition, services provided to athletes and officials, security and athlete accommodation will be tested to an "Olympic level" .

It is the first test event to feature the National Force and National Penitentiary Department - a total of 300 agents from the two organizations, as well as officers from the federal, civil and military police, fire officers and traffic agents, are part of the test event.

The Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre used to host 2007 Pan-American Games, the Rio 2016 organizers refurbished it for the Olympic diving, synchronized swimming and water polo competitions. However it remains as an outdoor venue, which provides divers numerous challenges as the weather changes a lot from day to night in Rio's summer season.

Day one's competition on Friday saw women's synchronized 10m platform preliminary got underway with temperatures in the upper thirties and dazzling sunshine. While in the afternoon's final of the same category, a thunderstorm suddenly came.

However the current world champions Lui Huixia and her partner Chen Ruolin were not affected by the rain and took first place with a brilliant display of diving.

"The rain during our competition has a slight impact on us, before we came to Rio we are fully aware of the weather condition at this outdoor venue," Chen said.

In Friday night's men's synchronized 3m springboard final, the rain stopped but the wind came instead. A total of 12 divers finished six rounds of dives in a relative cold weather.

Chinese pair Cao Lin and Qin Kai qualified in first earlier in the day and went into the final looking to take gold. Unfortunately the pair made mistakes in third and fifth rounds and the German pair of Stephan Feck and Patrick Hausding came into form at the right time and pushed the Chinese pair down into second place.

"To dive in this venue is difficult. In morning's preliminary session, the sunshine is very dazzling, while at night is a bit cold. The condition from day to night changes a lot," Olympic and world champion Qin said.

FINA used to ask organizers to put a roof on the outdoor venue and complained openly about it to Rio's mayor Eduardo Paes. The city declined to spend the money and said the federation was too demanding.

In a letter to the mayor from FINA, the swim body said conditions like those at the diving venue "will negatively affect the safety conditions and the level of performances of our athletes."

Cornel Marculescu, the executive director of FINA, acknowledged the letter but said that FINA had to be satisfied with what the organizers provided.

"It's not a matter anymore to complain, it a matter now to do the best event possible," Marculescu said in an interview with AP. "Evidently, it's much better if you have it indoors, but we have to run the best possible event in these conditions."

Within the current conditions, power supply also gets into trouble. The first two days' competitions suffer temporary power failure with broadcast, large screen breaking off and reporters from around the world working in a totally dark media center for sometimes.

Four-time Olympic gold medalist Wu Minxia of China won the women's synchronized 3m springboard with her partner Shi Tingmao on Saturday. "In the first round of our final, we even don't know the result because the screen didn't show it," said Wu.

Brazil's Zika virus outbreak has also made athletes and tourists afraid of being in the country. The Olympic host country has 1.5 million people infected by Zika since early 2015. While it causes only mild flu-like symptoms in most people, scientists suspect when it strikes a pregnant woman, it can cause her baby to be born with microcephaly, or an abnormally small head.

According to Chinese diving team manager Zhou Jihong, the organizing committee has provided repellent to teams and also introduced the information and raised awareness about Zika prevention. Besides, a day-by-day clean inside the venue will help to sweep away mosquitoes. Endit