Bushfires: Athletes battle through the smoke haze

Tennis stars coughed, spluttered and struggled for breath through a second day of “hazardous” air quality in Melbourne.

German player Dustin Brown receives treatment during Australian Open qualifying

Tennis stars coughed, spluttered and struggled for breath through a second day of “hazardous” air quality in Melbourne on Wednesday, as AFL clubs were forced to train indoors and race meetings were cancelled.

The smoke haze that has engulfed the city in recent days continued to cause havoc with Australian Open qualifying and the Kooyong Classic.

The Melbourne Football Club cancelled training due to air quality that was rated very poor while Collingwood, St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs trained indoors.

Racing Victoria cancelled race meetings at Caulfield and Yarra Valley.

Tennis Australia also postponed play and practice for periods at tournaments being held in the Victorian towns of Bendigo and Traralgon due to the smoke haze caused by the bushfires.

South African Kevin Anderson, a Wimbledon and US Open finalist, opted against playing in the Kooyong Classic because of the smoke, while Slovakian Jana Cepelova retired mid-match in conditions that were hot and humid at Melbourne Park.

After pushing ahead with qualifying on Tuesday following a delayed start, which led to players collapsing or needing assistance in scenes Victoria’s chief health officer described as awful, Australian Open organisers halted play for three hours on Wednesday.

The advice offered by the organisation was contradictory — the starting time on Wednesday was pushed back to 1pm due to air quality that was similar or slightly better than when matches were played a day earlier.

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And after the delayed start, play was suspended late in the day when storms lashed Melbourne.

The action was taken as world No 1 Rafael Nadal said he hoped the poor air quality would not prove detrimental to health.

“Hopefully (the smoke) will go away (and it) will go well. And hopefully things will not be negative in terms of health in terms of general stuff,” he said.

Sports medicine experts Dr Peter Bruckner and Dr Peter Larkins were among those who were critical of athletes being pushed to perform in air quality rated “very poor to hazardous”.

“They’re horrendous conditions and they’re unprecedented. We’ve never experienced anything like this,” Dr Bruckner told SEN.

“The smoke issue is a completely new issue and we’re struggling with what an acceptable level is and clearly yesterday there were some athletes quite distressed and no one likes to see that.

“The problem is, there is a lot of individual variation about how people cope with different levels. Some people struggle when it is a medium rating of poor, for instance, as others are fine when it’s at hazardous.”

Slovenian Dalila Jakupovic collapsed while leading her opening round qualifying match on Tuesday, while Eugenie Bouchard, Maria Sharapova and Bernard Tomic were among players who required treatment.

Belgian player Kirsten Flipkens declared she was “speechless” at the decision to allow play to proceed and noted, “tennis is a game. Health always comes first.”

After an opening round qualifying win, Canadian Brayden Schnur said Nadal and Roger Federer needed to assist lower-ranked players by making it clear it was unacceptable to put players at risk.

German Dustin Brown was among those who were distressed on Wednesday and Schnur said players who suffered from asthma were at a significant disadvantage.

Dr Brett Sutton, who is Victoria’s chief health officer, said he was happy to work with Tennis Australia and the Australian Open to create a framework in regards to air pollution to ensure the welfare of players and workers.

Australian Open officials said decisions were made in consultation with experts from organisations including the EPA and Australian Institute of Sport.

An advisory from the AIS to its athletes in December says exercise should be abandoned in air quality deemed worse than 150, which was the case in Melbourne throughout Tuesday.

There are also concerns regarding a contingency plan to move matches indoors to the National Tennis Centre, which adjoins Melbourne Arena. English player Jay Clarke said the air quality there was even worse. A week ago it deteriorated to the extent it triggered smoke alarms inside the venue.

“They have got permanent vents open, so when it got in, it wasn’t able to get out, so no players were practising indoors,” Clarke said.

Specialists have advised that if smoke contaminated indoor areas and was unable to be ventilated, it would acquire more pollutants.