France’s Cassandre Beaugrand and Britain’s Alex Yee won gold as the Paris Olympics triathlon went ahead Wednesday in a huge relief for organisers. 

Hazardous pollution levels in the River Seine in recent days had threatened to cause chaos to the triathlon competition and embarrassment to Paris Games chiefs. Organisers were forced to cancel training this week in the river and postponed the men’s race on Tuesday after the Seine was found to be too dirty for athletes following rainstorms last week. But despite heavy rain overnight, which can stir up pollution, organisers said early on Wednesday the water levels had been “assessed as compliant” for the women’s event and the men’s immediately afterwards to go ahead.