By David Owen

Rio 2016 has confirmed that the canoe slalom venue will remain in Rio de JaneiroOctober 21 - The canoe slalom venue for the next Summer Olympics is to remain in Rio de Janeiro after the project was "optimised" to cut construction costs and post-Games maintenance expenses, Rio 2016 has confirmed.

The announcement forestalls any prospect of the event being moved 700 miles away to an existing course near the famous Iguaçu Falls.

Rio 2016 said that the idea of hosting the Olympic canoe slalom events at this Foz do Iguaçu venue had been discarded due to "the estimated high costs of adapting the venue to Olympic requirements, its operation and maintenance, besides environmental issues".

It said enabling the event to take place in Rio de Janeiro - at the Deodoro complex that will host 11 Olympic and four Paralympic disciplines - was of "significant benefit" to the sport.

Post-Games, the plan is for the new course to be "jointly used for training of elite athletes and leisure of the general public".

The announcement confirms an insidethegames report, dated October 9, that the Olympic event was destined to remain in Deodoro to the delight of the white-water canoeing community which had feared marginalisation should the sport be shifted so far away from the heart of the Olympic action.

Rio 2016 said that the public invitation to tender for the canoe slalom course's construction would now be opened in 2014, with construction costs confirmed at that time.

In September, responsibility for Deodoro was transferred from the state to the city Government.

The municipality is now to build, or adapt, the venues with funding from the Federal Government.

Venues built at Deodoro for the 2007 Pan American Games, such as the national shooting and equestrian centres, are to be adapted and "fully used" for the 2016 Olympics.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) concerns at the rate of progress of the broader Olympic and Paralympic project appear to have been mounting in recent months, with pressure on organisers likely to ratchet up as soon as the Sochi 2014 Paralympic cauldron has been extinguished.

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