British swimmer Fran Halsall revealed a delay to the women's 50 metre freestyle semi-finals at Rio 2016 was caused by several athletes being driven to the wrong venue.
The final races of Friday's swimming programme eventually went ahead around half an hour later than scheduled, with a host of medal ceremonies brought forward before Halsall and her rivals could take to the pool.
After winning the first semi-final in a time of 24.41 seconds, Halsall told the BBC: "The whole Olympics had to be stopped for me tonight, unfortunately.
"Me, Jeanette Ottesen and Aliaksandra Herasimenia got on our bus, two hours before the start of our race, to come down to the pool. It took us to the Olympic Stadium, which happens to be 40 minutes in the opposite direction to the pool.
"So I ended up going and having a nice tour around the Olympic Stadium, 40 minutes back to the village and then back to the pool for warm-ups. My emotions and adrenaline were all over the place.
"I'm just glad that I could come out [and qualify]. If I can handle that and get in and win my semi, I'm happy with that.
"If I get on the right bus tomorrow, everything will be good!"
Former Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington, who now works as a pundit for the BBC, had been among those to reveal the bus mix-up prior to Halsall's interview.
Pernille Blume of Denmark won semi-final two to qualify fastest for Saturday's final.
Comments
SHARE