RIO DE JANEIRO -- Peter Cookson approached the media in the mixed zone at Lagoa Stadium to discuss Sunday's postponement of the Olympic rowing regatta when a big gust of wind, almost on cue, whistled through the facility.
All he could do was smile.
After delaying the start by two hours because of high winds and the resulting turbulent waters, officials were forced to scrap the day's competition on the heels a rocky opening on Saturday.
"I haven't seen it this bad. I was here for the test event last year and the conditions were wonderful," said Cookson, Rowing Canada's high performance director. "I thought it was going to make for a great Olympic Games. I thought being a Sunday and having Christ the Redeemer statue over top of us we would be fine, but that didn't quite work out today."
The men's lightweight four, women's pair, women's lightweight double sculls and men's four were scheduled to compete for Canada, but instead returned to their hotel as dust and leaves whipped around the venue.
"You cannot row in these conditions. They made the right decision to postpone the racing for the day," said Cookson. "We know that we've got a full week ahead of us still and I think in terms of getting the racing in by Saturday, we will be able to get that in.
"The forecast is not great unfortunately for the entire week, but as an outdoor sport we're at the mercy of the weather gods and we will deal with it."
International rowing federation executive director Matt Smith said gusts of up to 54 km/h (15 metres per second) were pushing buoys into the lanes and a couple of boats capsized during morning practice. He said races would be rescheduled for Monday and Tuesday when less wind is expected.
"We're hopeful that it will settle down," Smith said, adding it's possible to extend the race program by one day until Aug. 14 and schedule more races in the remaining days if the high winds persist.
"We are old and experienced in staging regattas. We have a lot of tricks up our sleeves."
Strong winds and choppy water made racing difficult on Saturday, with Serbia's men's pair capsizing into the polluted Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas halfway through their heat and a Canadian rower losing the grip on one of his oars because of a wave.
"You could look at any of the footage from any of the TV coverage, the athletes were really struggling," said Cookson. "These are very well-trained and professional athletes. For them to struggle like they were is difficult for all of us to see who are involved in the sport."
Cookson said he had lobbied for Saturday's heats to be postponed, but those concerns fell on deaf ears.
"I think the international federation's position is that the athletes were safe, that it was fair, but that's different than being rowable," he said. "I'm a purist and I believe rowing should be done in the conditions that its meant for, which is basically flat water."
Cookson said the Canadians train in all sorts of conditions and came to Rio prepared for the possibility of rough weather and delays.
"We know that sometimes you have to just hold off even though you're prepared and ready to go," he said. "All the crews that were racing today were really ready to go, but I know that they will certainly be up for when they do get called to race."
With files from The Associated Press
