Rio 2016: Jamaican team arrives in Olympic Village to find leaky bathrooms, plumbers on tap and workmen on their starting blocks
Welcome to Rio: Morale in the camp said to be improving as shock waves subside and give way to high expectations
JAMAICAN officials insist morale within the camp is improving after the shock of finding their accomodation in the Olympic Village was unfinished.
A number of the rooms had plumbing problems, they enountered leaky bathrooms while one room in particular was still being worked on when the team arrived.
Jamaican Chef de Mission Vishu Tolan insisted: "The mood is improving. Yesterday was disheartening and challenging. The trip from the Linx Hotel (training base) is about one hour or an hour and half, depending on traffic, so they would expect that when they arrived (at the Olympic) Village) things would be seamless.
"But the challenge we had was with the rooms, and that might have created a little bit of a nightmare for the athletes.
"Now here is a much better look on their faces, and as the Games continue and as we all get used to the surrounding and circumstances, we will be fine.
"We expect most of these challenges to be addressed by today and we look forward to the competition."
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Tolan explained that when the Jamaica Olympic Association delegation arrived to check on the facilities ahead of the team's arrival on Wednesday everything seemed in order.
But the situation changed as the increased Village population started to put a strain on the system.
The Jamaicans were allocated 92 beds on three floors for their 88-member delegation.
Added Tolan: "There were about three rooms that had some leakage in the bathrooms and when the team came in the workmen were actually doing the work and that was unfortunate.
"It's been a challenge getting Rio to complete any task on time. It's a very large Village, of course. We are talking about a Village accommodating close to 18,000 persons, so you can imaging the challenge of getting things done.
"We are not going blame anyone or try to say anything bad about the organisers. I think the village is extremely wonderful outside of these issues.
"The amenities are great, the restaurant is good, and we have not had any complaints about the food."