Route cause: Ottesen & Co taken to athletics stadium instead of swimming pool

Organisers at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium in Rio had to scramble on Friday when a bus carrying swimmers to a night’s session headed off to the wrong venue

Rio de Janeiro: Organisers at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium in Rio had to scramble on Friday when a bus carrying swimmers to a night’s session headed off to the wrong venue.

Danish swimmer Jeanette Ottesen. Pic/Getty Images

The night’s finals were in full swing when it was announced that the women’s 50m freestyle semi-finals would be delayed until after the last two medal ceremonies of the night.

British swimmer Fran Halsall told the BBC that she, Jeanette Ottesen and Aliaksandra Herasimenia boarded their bus two hours before they were due to race, but were taken in the opposite direction to the Olympic Stadium.

A press operations spokesman later said that because of a miscommunication, a bus carrying some of the swimmers due to compete had headed off to the athletics venue, and had to change course when the mistake was realised.

Halsall said her “emotions and adrenaline were all over the place,” but she still won the first semi-final in 24.41sec, fourth-fastest overall behind the 24.28 of Denmark’s Pernille Blume going into Saturday’s final. Ottesen finished sixth with 24.62 sec.

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