Olympics triathlon training session is cancelled AGAIN over health concerns due to pollution in the River Seine - as athletes face nervy wait to find out whether the event will go ahead

Triathletes – including GB’s gold chasing Alex Yee – are set to go to bed on Monday night not knowing if their competition will take place in the morning.

Continued water quality issues in the Seine saw the men’s practice swimming session, scheduled for Sunday, cancelled, and early on Monday, the women’s test run was also called off.

Officials will make a call on whether the famous river, part of a £1bn clean-up, will be fit to enter at around 3.30am local time, four-and-a-half hours ahead of the planned 8am start.

Should bacteria levels remain unsafe, organisers have two options. They can drop the swimming and make the event a duathlon, or postpone it to a later date. August 2 has been pencilled in. The women’s triathlon is due to take place on Wednesday.

Swimming in the Seine, which dissects the city, has been banned since 1923. In 1990, Jacques Chirac, then mayor of Paris, famously declared that he would make it clean enough to enter, but failed in his mission.

Earlier this month, following astonishing investment, current mayor Anne Hidalgo plunged in with a group of around 100 officials and swam around 100 metres.

However, the heavy rain which disrupted the opening ceremony has impacted on water quality levels, with the threat of pollution, in particular E.coli, a concern.

Such downfall is damaging given it can trigger problems with wastewater and water speed.

Over the weekend Tony Estanguet, the Paris 2024 chief, told a press conference he was ‘very confident’ that swimming in the Seine would take place.

Lewisham’s Yee, 26, won silver in Tokyo and gold in the mixed relay. He is considered a strong contender in France.

Following this morning’s test results, a Paris 2024 spokesperson said: ‘Given the weather forecast for the next 36 hours, Paris 2024 and World Triathlon are confident that water quality will return to below limits before the start for of the triathlon competitions on 30 July. 

'As observed in July, with summer conditions (more sunshine, higher temperatures, prolonged absence of rain) water quality in the Seine has improved significantly.’