Other Sports

Pan Am Games' operations center passes mock test

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-06-21 08:47

The Organizing Committee of Rio de Janeiro's Pan American Games (CO-Rio) informed on Wednesday that the Main Operations Center (MOC), designed especially for the event, underwent a mock test and passed.

CO-Rio stressed that it was the first time that a Pan Am Games MOC is tested that way. According to the entity's press statement, in a period of 30 hours, the committee simulated what the event will be like on July 21 and 22, the days when the biggest number of athletes will be participating in it.

CO-Rio's President Carlos Arthur Nuzman pointed out that, in an event like the Pan Am Games, "problems may take place and the organizers need to be prepared to search for the best solution." He added that the situations simulated in the mock test were "real," as they have already happened in the Olympics.

One of the simulated problems was an automobile accident involving a water polo team on one of the main highways that link some of the sports facilities to be hosting the competitions.

The MOC expects to acknowledge all the incidents, but most of them will "be solved out at the sports facility," where they will occur, CO-Rio added.

The MOC will start operating on June 28, 15 days prior to the Games' opening ceremony, on July 13. Seventy-five people will work there, taking turns in shifts that will cover the event 24 hours a day, and monitoring services such as transportation, relations with the press, technology and workforce.