Olympic rowing spectator injured as chair breaks

The grandstand at Eton Dorney Lake The woman needed hospital treatment after the chair she was sitting on broke

A spectator at the Olympic rowing events at Eton Dorney Lake was injured when a seat broke in the grandstand.

The woman injured her hip when she fell to the floor on Saturday after spot-welding holding the seat in place failed.

Locog said the remaining seats in the Buckinghamshire venue had been checked and some were replaced.

A spokesman said: "The venues have been inspected and we are confident that the defect has been fixed."

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Spectators at other venues have also complained about defective seating. Problems were reported at Lord's, where the archery is taking place, and at the Riverbank Arena in the Olympic Park.

Michael Page, from New Romney, Kent, said he was watching the hockey at the Riverbank Arena on Sunday when a hole appeared in the floor.

He said: "I was about four seats away when it happened. The crowd did a Mexican wave - one row jumped up and the empty seats behind moved forward which meant the flooring collapsed. Then some official people came over and had to drill the flooring back together again and they taped off the area."

Locog said it had checked all 200,000 seats at temporary venues following the collapse.

A spokeswoman said: "The welding broke on one seat at Eton Dorney, and on a couple of other seats at the Hockey, so games organisers have checked all the seats provided by the contractor to temporary venues."

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