New doubts over coral, safety at planned Olympic surf venue / Photo: © AFP/File
CMSC
-0.1100
The China Mail - New doubts over coral, safety at planned Olympic surf venue
USD
-
AED 3.672975
AFN 72.000089
ALL 86.650035
AMD 390.940134
ANG 1.80229
AOA 917.494952
ARS 1125.064401
AUD 1.558015
AWG 1.8
AZN 1.701791
BAM 1.720686
BBD 2.017877
BDT 121.428069
BGN 1.7211
BHD 0.376901
BIF 2930
BMD 1
BND 1.312071
BOB 6.906563
BRL 5.807097
BSD 0.999437
BTN 85.314611
BWP 13.77569
BYN 3.270808
BYR 19600
BZD 2.007496
CAD 1.383145
CDF 2877.000218
CHF 0.809925
CLF 0.02506
CLP 961.650058
CNY 7.284777
CNH 7.29449
COP 4281
CRC 502.269848
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 97.399493
CZK 21.760499
DJF 177.720086
DKK 6.492497
DOP 60.501353
DZD 132.565982
EGP 50.541395
ERN 15
ETB 133.023649
EUR 0.869404
FJD 2.283706
FKP 0.752396
GBP 0.74765
GEL 2.745029
GGP 0.752396
GHS 15.560072
GIP 0.752396
GMD 71.498051
GNF 8655.515054
GTQ 7.698128
GYD 209.656701
HKD 7.759555
HNL 25.84999
HRK 6.544602
HTG 130.419482
HUF 354.235497
IDR 16823.9
ILS 3.71718
IMP 0.752396
INR 85.15915
IQD 1310
IRR 42125.000102
ISK 126.129815
JEP 0.752396
JMD 157.965583
JOD 0.709303
JPY 141.036016
KES 129.850263
KGS 87.233499
KHR 4015.000213
KMF 433.499378
KPW 900
KRW 1422.549781
KWD 0.30663
KYD 0.832893
KZT 523.173564
LAK 21687.495377
LBP 89600.00031
LKR 298.915224
LRD 199.975046
LSL 18.856894
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 5.469911
MAD 9.275044
MDL 17.289555
MGA 4552.892736
MKD 54.091003
MMK 2099.693619
MNT 3567.319696
MOP 7.990393
MRU 39.435529
MUR 45.089851
MVR 15.39788
MWK 1736.000341
MXN 19.70631
MYR 4.407501
MZN 63.904971
NAD 18.856894
NGN 1604.649936
NIO 36.775056
NOK 10.374299
NPR 136.503202
NZD 1.666486
OMR 0.384998
PAB 0.999437
PEN 3.762989
PGK 4.133235
PHP 56.610054
PKR 280.60377
PLN 3.712163
PYG 7999.894426
QAR 3.640602
RON 4.328295
RSD 103.137317
RUB 81.223179
RWF 1415
SAR 3.751988
SBD 8.326764
SCR 14.241693
SDG 600.490697
SEK 9.52998
SGD 1.305295
SHP 0.785843
SLE 22.77499
SLL 20969.483762
SOS 571.498602
SRD 37.150437
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.745073
SYP 13001.857571
SZL 18.819969
THB 33.110166
TJS 10.733754
TMT 3.5
TND 2.988024
TOP 2.342098
TRY 38.237299
TTD 6.781391
TWD 32.457199
TZS 2687.502594
UAH 41.417687
UGX 3663.55798
UYU 41.913007
UZS 12915.000329
VES 80.85863
VND 25892.5
VUV 120.966311
WST 2.777003
XAF 577.111964
XAG 0.030591
XAU 0.000293
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.717698
XOF 575.000077
XPF 102.775037
YER 245.250098
ZAR 18.700625
ZMK 9001.204528
ZMW 28.458439
ZWL 321.999592
- As world mourns, cardinals prepare pope's funeral
- US to impose new duties on solar imports from Southeast Asia
- Draft NZ law seeks 'biological' definition of man, woman
- Auto Shanghai to showcase electric competition at sector's new frontier
- Tentative tree planting 'decades overdue' in sweltering Athens
- Indonesia food plan risks 'world's largest' deforestation
- Gold hits record, stocks slip as Trump fuels Fed fears
- Trump helps enflame anti-LGBTQ feeling from Hungary to Romania
- Woe is the pinata, a casualty of Trump trade war
- 'Like orphans': Argentina mourns loss of papal son
New doubts over coral, safety at planned Olympic surf venue
The president of French Polynesia has questioned whether 2024 Olympic surfing can go ahead at the planned site in Tahiti, saying he was concerned about safety and damage to coral from a planned judging tower.
A construction barge slated to install a new judging tower broke more of the beach's corals in a new test in the French Pacific territory on Friday, which was filmed by environmental groups.
That could leave an old wooden tower as the only space for the judges.
"Today we're breaking coral, and tomorrow we may be endangering people's lives if we use this old equipment," Moetai Brotherson told local broadcaster TNTV on Saturday.
"If there's no solution in the end... we must call into question the survival of the surf contests at Teahupoo," he added.
Brotherson cancelled tests he was supposed to observe as well as the start of construction work on Monday.
And he said that "there's no way we will be able to re-use the old foundations... or the old tower".
Brotherson told AFP that it would not be possible to move the competition to another beach in Tahiti, as Teahupoo was the site originally filed with Olympic authorities as part of France's candidacy.
And it would cost several million euros (dollars) to move the surfing events to a site in metropolitan France.
But Barbara Martins-Nio, the Tahiti Olympics site director, said she was "confident a technical solution exists".
"A new tower and new foundations are the only way," she added -- while acknowledging that "it's true that it's difficult to access the site".
"If we don't manage it, all of us together will have to ask ourselves what happens next," Martins-Nio said.
More than 168,000 people have signed an online petition against the planned aluminium judges' tower, supposed to reach a height of 14 metres (46 feet), while hundreds have protested at the Teahupoo site itself.
It "doesn't make any sense to need such a giant tower for a 2 days event," American surfing legend Kelly Slater posted online last week, calling to "give the money to local infrastructure" instead.
Vai ara o Teahupoo, the main association opposing the new tower, has stopped speaking to the media about the case.
B.Carter--ThChM
