A day after rowers vented frustration at competing in rough water and strong crosswinds on Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon, organisers wasted little time in abandoning racing today.
With winds strengthening and heavy chop obvious on the water, which almost gave a zigzag effect to some of the lanes in parts of the course, the cancellation was announced just before 10.30am local time. The high winds have also affected play in the tennis tournament with matches on the outside courts delayed.
Two New Zealand crews were to contest their first round heats - the women's pair of Rebecca Scown and Genevieve Behrent, and lightweight women's double scullers Julia Edward and Sophie Mackenzie. Their races will be pushed back one day as officials set about re-jigging the schedule.
The Daily Mail has reported organisers may now have to look at cancelling some races altogether - most likely the repechage events - or pulling some classes forward to try and find a window, with the forecast suggesting relatively strong winds until the middle of this week.
Any condensing of the schedule could have a major impact on Scown and Behrent in particular, with the women's pair already faced with an extremely tough challenge doubling up in the women's eight. Numerous rowers had been unhappy with the conditions on the opening day of racing, which are especially bad in the middle kilometre of the 2000m course.
Emma Twigg and Mahe Drysdale yesterday blasted officials for not calling off the rowing when the wind picked up on the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon, turning the regatta into a test of "survival rather than skill".
The choppy conditions saw one crew - Serbian pair Milos Vasic and Nenad Benik - capsize in the bacteria infested waters of the venue.
Despite comfortably winning her heat in the women's single sculls and advancing directly through to the quarterfinals, Twigg protested after crossing the finish line.
"After the race I put my hand up and protested, because I simply don't believe we should be racing in an Olympic Games conditions like that," said Twigg.
"It was very tricky, today it was more about surviving and not falling out, which is a shame when you come to the Olympics and your first heat is about staying in the boat as opposed to putting it all on the line."
Rowing New Zealand officials later lodged an official complaint with the world rowing body for continuing the regatta in what were deemed "unrowable" conditions.
