Rio Water Polo Venue Finalized

(ATR) International Aquatics Federation Executive Director Colonel Marculescu tells Around the Rings after a "productive" discussion with Rio authorities polo preliminary matches will take place at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Stadium.

Maria Lenk will host the matches, which were originally supposed to be held in the Julio de Lamare aquatics center near the Maracana stadium. Construction delays meant Rio organizers and FINA had to look for another venue.

The temporary aquatics center, built for modern pentathlon, at the Deodoro Olympic Park was considered, but ultimately passed over by FINA.

During the two-day meeting FINA, Rio 2016, and representatives from Mayor Eduardo Paes’ office discussed all aquatics disciplines that will be held during the Games. According to Marculescu, FINA met with competition managers for each discipline to discuss possible adjustments and ensure any changes would not create scheduling issues for events.

"We visited Deodoro, it can be very good but with the temporary venue proposed it was probably not enough; we finalized the solution to have it in Maria Lenk," Marculescu said to ATR.

"That will bring us some challenges with training for water polo but an additional pool will be created to let water polo warm up."

Maria Lenk will now host three aquatics disciplines during the Games diving, synchronized swimming, and water polo. In addition to a second pool built for Maria Lenk, two temporary pools will be created for swimmers and divers to warm up in the Olympic Village due to lack of space in the venue.

Another topic for discussion with Mayor Paes was placement of the 10m diving tower in the venue to ensure that wind does not affect competition. Another issue that must now be tackled is how to deal with a lack of air conditioning in the structure.

Rio 2016 will feature the first outdoor venue for diving since the 1992 Games in Barcelona, as FINA’s requests to build a temporary roof on the stadium were deemed too costly.

"In general Paes is going to do a big review of the Maria Lenk venue and make sure it is put at an Olympic level," Marculescu said.

"Now at the aquatic center the problem is that the space on the pool deck is limited, with only a number of positions available in the mixed zone. It will be a challenge seeing how we can fix the spacing."

A spokesperson for the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee echoed the sentiments of FINA to ATR and said the discussions were "productive," and the committee was pleased with the steps taken from both sides.

FINA and Rio 2016 now have nine months to tackle the remaining challenges the changes in venues brings. Test events for diving will be held on Feb. 19-24, synchronized swimming on Mar. 2-6, and water polo on Apr. 26-29.

Written by Aaron Bauer in Rio de Janeiro

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