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RIO DE JANEIRO. — The venue scheduled to host water polo at next year’s Rio Olympics will be dropped from the Games, after months of construction delays and a funding shortfall, officials said on Wednes- day.

The Julio Delamare aquatic park, near the famed Maracana football stadium, had been scheduled to host first phase matches.

But the $20 million needed to refurbish the venue has not been secured, and state government chief of staff Leonardo Espindola said the project would have to be scrapped as it is “just too costly”.

Espindola said organisers tried to secure the funding from a third-party consortium that funded the multimillion- dollar Maracana Stadium redo last year, but it refused to back the project.

The state government also said it did not have the money, Espindola told reporters on the sidelines of an International Olympic Committee (IOC) meeting to assess Brazil’s readiness to host next year’s Games.

The water polo events could be relocated either to the Olympic Park where diving and swimming events are taking place, or to the Deodoro venue in northern Rio de Janeiro, Espindola said. — AFP.