Holy smoke: athletes gasping in bushfire smoke

As choking smoke from bushfires to the north and west enveloped the city, athletes might have wondered if they were in New Dehli.

Choking bushfire smoke almost obscures the historic stands at the SCG

From your seat in the Members Pavilion at the SCG on Tuesday, you could see NSW paceman Trent Copeland as he started his run-up at the Paddington end.

By the time he released a delivery he had almost disappeared into the haze.

Out at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in Darling Point, the ghostly sails of supermaxis shimmerred and faded to nothing less than 50m from the dock.

And on NRL and AFL training grounds across the city, players gasped for breath as they sweated it out in pre-season training.

As temperatures soared and choking smoke from bushfires to the north and west enveloped the city, athletes might have wondered if they were in New Dehli rather than Sydney.

The Big Boat Challenge, the annual precursor to the Sydney-Hobart race, was cancelled when smoke reduced visibility on the harbour to less than one nautical mile, making the waterway unsafe for the 100ft supermaxis vying for a win. With dozens of spectator boats expected to watch the six starters on their two-lap race around the harbour, the CYCA commodore Paul Billingham announced just after 11am that the race had been abandoned on safety grounds.

“We have just had a report from a boat in mid-harbour and the visibility is less than one nautical mile,” Billingham said. “It was our responsibility to do the right thing.”

At the SCG they battled on, despite air quality plunges to more than 12 times over hazardous levels. Their eyes stinging and their lungs burning, the NSW players triumphed, crushing Queensland by nine wickets.

NSW allrounder Moises Henriques compared it to playing in a smog-choked Indian city.

“I’ve played in Delhi and a lot of those (subcontinental) countries But that today, is the worst in terms of haze and smog that I’ve ever played under for sure — by country miles,” Henriques told The Daily Telegraph.

Additional reporting: DD McNicoll