Laurence Dollimore
THREE members of Spain´s Olympic sailing team were robbed at gunpoint in Rio on Saturday morning.
Olympic champion Fernando Echavarri, World and European champion Tara Pacheco and trainer Santi Lopez-Vazquez were confronted by five people armed with two pistols.
The mugging occured in the early hours of Saturday morning in the popular tourist spot of Santa Teresa.
“It was a very unpleasant experience,” Lopez-Vazquez said, “There were five youths with two pistols. They took all the work equipment we were carrying at that time.”
No one was injured in the robbery.
The team have said they want to put it behind them and focus on their training.
The attack will add to concerns over safety at the upcoming Olympic games this summer, set to take place in Rio.
“A bag with money, documents and a camera were taken,” confirmed Rio´s tourism police, “Civil police are working to identify the authors of the crime and to recover the stolen objects.”
Sailors have also raised concerns over the high levels of pollution and floating garbage in Guanabara Bay, which could impede racing dinghies and windsurfers.
Earlier this year a part of the cycling track in Rio collapsed, killing two, and leading many to question Brazil´s credibility as a host of the games.
They are due to start August 5.
Same happened to me twice in the eighties. A similar collapsing economy is happening now in Brazil. Poverty changes people’s characters. Visitors of Rio and other big cities in Brazil better be prepared.
Being out in the early hours of the morning did’nt help did it?