HECTOR PARDOE urged the UK to wake up and follow France’s lead in cleaning up their waterways after an Olympic marathon swim that was dominated by controversy.

The Whitchurch star and ex-Ellesmere schoolboy, 23, finished sixth on Friday morning in a 10km race where the build-up was overshadowed by questions over whether it could even go ahead.

Doubts were raised over the level of water pollution in the River Seine, with the men’s triathlon having to be pushed back 24 hours to the same day as the women’s race last week.

But after those two events, the mixed relay triathlon and both men’s and women’s marathon swimming races all passed relevant water quality tests and went ahead as planned, Pardoe believes Paris 2024’s legacy is secure.

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The Welshman hailed organisers for their efforts and hopes the last fortnight in France can blaze a trail for others to follow.

“I think this will be Paris 2024’s legacy – it’s amazing they have managed to clean it up and amazing all races have gone ahead,” he said.

“It sets a good precedent for other nations to clean up their rivers and hopefully we can follow in the UK, but we’ve got a massive way to go to do what France have done here.

“A lot of the venues here are temporary ones, unlike London where there is a legacy.

“It was no different to lakes in UK – the water quality felt fine and the current was crazy.

“I swam in it beforehand and managed to get good experience with it all. I thought I did a good job in there today.

“There’s always negativity before every Games about sewage, and at least they’ve tried here. Bravo for them for doing it and put on an amazing race.”

Pardoe was forced to withdraw during his race at Tokyo 2020 after taking a brutal elbow to the eye.

But three years on, he safely navigated his way around the gruelling 10km course to grab an admirable sixth-place finish.

Pardoe finished 40 seconds off a medal with a time of 1:51:50.08 after fighting through punishing Parisian conditions as teammate Toby Robinson came 14th.

“I’m not sure what the initial emotions are, but I’ll dwell on it and see how I feel,” he said.

“I thought there was a medal there but it’s an improvement from Tokyo.

“It felt like I just swam for an hour and 40 minutes into a treadmill – it was a good race and an amazing experience to race on such an iconic course.

“My partner is French so I’ll probably be coming to Paris for the rest of my life, so I will remember this swim. It’s so iconic.”

Watch every moment of Olympic Games Paris 2024 live only on discovery+, the streaming home of the Olympics