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RIO DE JANEIRO -- Olympic officials gave up on cleaning the green-tinged water in one of the pools at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Center, so they drained and transfered almost 1 million gallons of clear water from a nearby practice pool in time for the start of synchronized swimming.Mario Andrada, a spokesman for Rio 2016, said the radical measure was necessary to ensure clear water for both judges and competitors during an event that requires athletes to spend much of their time underwater. He stressed that the kale-colored water posed no risk to the health of the athletes.Of course it is an embarrassment because we are hosting the Olympic Games, Andrada said. It should be light blue, transparent. We could have done better in fixing it quickly. We learned a painful lesson the hard way.An adjacent, smaller pool will continue to be used for the diving competition, even though it remains murky. American diver Abby Johnston has dubbed it the swamp.Gustavo Nascimento, the director of venue management for Rio 2016, said the entire operation would take 10 hours -- six to drain the dirty water out of the competition pool and four to bring in the clean water using pumps and hoses. Synchronized swimmers were greeted by clear blue water in the competition pool Sunday after officials worked through the night.The larger pool had been used for water polo preliminary games. That sport was scheduled all along to move to the 15,000-seat Olympic Aquatics Stadium after the final session of swimming Saturday night.The water in the diving well turned a dark shade of green Tuesday, and the larger pool began to turn the same color the following day. While the color of both pools seems to be returning to normal, Nascimento said there was not enough time to complete the cleaning process by Sunday.He blamed a contractor for mistakenly dumping hydrogen peroxide into the pool late last week, which caused an adverse reaction when it mixed with chlorine. The dirty water will be disposed of using the citys sewage system, which has already come under intense scrutiny for dumping untreated waste into water that is being used for rowing, canoeing, sailing, triathlon and open water swimming.There are two warm-up pools at Maria Lenk, and neither was affected by the issues inside the stadium. The one used by water polo teams will be drained since it wont be needed after Saturday, while the synchronized swimmers will continue to have use of their practice pool.Some divers have said the green water actually helps them during competition by giving them a contrast with the blue sky when they are spinning through the air. No one has complained of any problems diving into the water, though there have been plenty of snarky posts on social media. After the diving pool was closed for a scheduled practice session Friday, Germanys Patrick Hausding posted a couple of pictures, one holding his nose with the caption Good morning from the green lake!Andrada stressed that Rio officials had been able to solve myriad issues plaguing the Games but conceded they were out of short-term options when it came to the green water. A day before, he attempted to explain trouble fixing the water by declaring that chemistry is not an exact science.This is probably the only problem we were unable to solve quickly, he said. The embarrassment wont last forever.Rio officials are also dealing with another aquatics venue mishap.The starting platform for the open water course broke into three pieces in bad weather, forcing the cancellation of practice Saturday at Fort Copacabana. 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He was fined $30,000 for a hit on the New York Jets Jeff Cumberland in Week 1.After 15 rounds, there they are again at the top of the AFL ladder, just as they have been for much of the past decade, looking down on the rest of the competition.Hawthorn and Sydney sit first and second respectively, and on Thursday evening play off in one of the most eagerly anticipated home-and-away matches of the year.Longmire extends Swans dealWhile most neutral observers will enjoy watching two potential grand finalists going toe-to-toe, there is another appeal - the knowledge that, come 10.45pm on Thursday, one of those two powerhouses will have suffered a defeat.Thats what its come to: the dominance of the same two or three clubs (Geelong is up there, too) each season is affecting the codes popularity. People are getting bored by the utter predictability of the competition which is beginning to have echoes of the Scottish football league, when Celtic and Rangers shared the championship between them virtually every year.For all the AFL Commissions attempts at levelling the playing field, through the draft, salary cap and equalisation payments, Hawthorn and Sydney continue to defy the social engineering. Like two cockroaches, they just march through the AFLs stream of Mortein and saddle up for another season of success.Hawthorn officials were understandably jubilant after winning the grand final last season, thumping a pathetic West Coast to claim their third premiership in a row.Yet when the leagues two heavyweights, chief executive Gillon McLachlan and chairman Mike Fitzpatrick, walked into the rooms afterwards, their faces hardly radiated happiness and the joy of life.The pair was privately furious that the Hawks had again scuppered their best-laid plans at producing a vibrant, exciting, even, fair-for-all competition. Hawthorn officials were nonplussed by the lack of magnanimity.This is one area where the NRL has had it all over the AFL in recent seasons: the variety of premiers.In the past nine seasons, three clubs have dominated the AFL competition - Geelong, Hawthorn and Sydney - with Collingwood breaking the nexus in 2010. Yet the NRL has produced six different premiers in the past six seasons alone - and four different clubs again that have finished runner-up.There is not the same entrenched superiority among the rugby league clubs. Even fans of the smaller, leess established teams know at the start of each season that, if the coach and administration are half-decent, theyve got a fighting chance of featuring in the grand final.dddddddddddd That North Queensland, based in tiny Townsville, can knock off the mighty Broncos of Brisbane in the big one - and what a contest last year that proved to be.Of course there is universal respect - and sneaky admiration - for the way the footy operations are run at Hawthorn and Sydney. With peerless administrations that boast clever recruiters and brilliant coaches - and foster rock-solid cultures - the two clubs are the envy of many.But if they play off in the grand final again this year, the collective groan from most non-aligned footy supporters in Melbourne will be heard all the way up the Hume Highway, and across the Nullarbor.This remains the AFLs great challenge. Yet when theyve needed to show a bit of backbone and defend their equalisation policies, and stand up to the rampant self-interest of powerful clubs such as Collingwood and the Hawks, they have tended to cave in like jellyfish.Because of the bleating of the Pies and Hawks, among others, we are now lumbered with a hopelessly compromised system where those two uber-rich clubs are paying not much more each year in equalisation monies than middle-tier clubs such as Richmond and Geelong. And that means the smaller clubs, who have been routinely shafted on the matter of free-to-air TV exposure, Friday night timeslots, lack of blockbuster fixtures and woeful stadium deals, are again short-changed.The Western Bulldogs, or Footscray as they once were, have not tasted final-Saturday success since 1954 - their one and only premiership. Only St Kilda fans with long memories will recall their sole triumph, in 1966, while Melbourne - in spite of a lengthy period dominating the competition in the 1950s and early 60s - have not lifted the premiership cup since 1964.Thats an excruciating wait for three disenfranchised generations of fans at those three clubs.Yet here we are again with those brown-and-gold Hawks, and Sydneys red-and-white Swans, perched atop the ladder and once again leading the charge towards September. ' ' '