57 world championship triathletes fall ill with diarrhoea and vomiting after swimming in polluted sea off Sunderland
6 August 2023, 18:41 | Updated: 6 August 2023, 18:49
Up to 57 top athletes have fallen ill with diarrhoea and vomiting after taking part in a World Triathlon Championship Series event off the coast of Sunderland.
Competitors taking part in the event took to the waters off Roker Beach, Sunderland, before dozens fell ill - including Australian triathlete Jacob Birtwhistle, who has since said the event should have been cancelled.
Testing has now been conducted to determine the cause of the outbreak, with concerns raised about the water quality results after showing high levels of E.coli.
However, British Triathlon has said the water tested was outside the swim area used by the athletes during the event, held on 29 July.
The organisation has confirmed test samples were "taken outside of the Roker Pier arms and not in the body of water used for the swim".
The news follows mounting criticism over the release of raw sewage into rivers by UK water companies.
The triathlon, which saw the 2000 athletes take part over the course of last weekend, is a combined event involving running, swimming and cycling.
The UK Health Security Agency has now said it had been notified of 57 cases involving diarrhoea and vomiting from those taking part.
The agency have said they are now working with British Triathlon "to encourage anyone who participated and has or had symptoms after the event to contact the organisers".
A spokeswoman for the UK Health Security Agency added: "The team will undertake an investigation of cases as is routine when they are notified of gastroenteritis.
"This will involve a detailed questionnaire to establish more information on where illness may have been acquired.
"The team will also send sample pots to cases so that stool samples can be laboratory tested to discover the cause of illness and determine if there are any common pathogens involved. This process is currently under way.
"As is standard in these investigations we would not speculate as to causes until we have received lab-confirmed cases and undertaken further epidemiological investigations."
The race served as the British leg of the 2023 World Series, which coincided with qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
It comes as news emerged that the Olympics swimming test event which was scheduled to take place in Paris was cancelled due to poor water quality.
The French government has undertaken a rigorous water treatment plan in recent months in a bid to clean up the river Seine, which runs through the heart of the French capital, ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The Olympics are expected to see athletes swim in the river for the first time in more than 100 years as part of events taking place next summer.
The Paris 2024 organising committee has since blamed above-average rainfall in July on the cancellation, with excess water leaving the Seine too polluted to swim in.
