Paris Olympics branded a 'joke' as volleyball arena plunged into darkness midway through match
The volleyball arena was plunged into darkness momentarily
GETTY
The Paris Expo Porte de Versailles arena was plunged into darkness after a power cut during the men's volleyball match between Japan and the United States.
The two sides were playing their final pool match of the event with the Americans already qualified for the quarter-finals.
The United States were aiming to clinch top spot in their pool while Japan went into the match needing to guarantee their spot in the next round.
With everything on the line, tensions were high at the start of the match with the United States taking an early lead.
The volleyball arena was plunged into darkness momentarily
GETTY
But just the match had to be stopped soon after the Americans went 3-1 up following a power outage inside the arena.
There were whistles from the crowd as the stadium was filled with darkness before the audience made a temporary fix by using the torches on their phones.
Music blared around the stadium as the fans inside waved their phones around in the air to the beat.
The athletes remained out on the court before the lights were back on two minutes later.
But the blackout caused a stir on social media with viewers less than impressed at another gaffe from the hosts.
One person posted: "This olympics is a joke. earlier, loud music played in the middle of the badminton quarter finals match between Chinese Taipei and India. now, the light on the entire arena just went off in the middle of the volleyball match between japan and UGA."
Another message read: "lights f*** up, peak volleyball."
A third said: "wtf happened to the light in the japan-usa volleyball match."
The men's skiff final had to be postponed on Friday
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The Olympics have largely gone on without too much disruption to its overall schedule, but there have been delays to the triathlon and sailing events due to water quality and a lack of wind.
The men's skiff final was postponed at the end of the first lap on Friday as British duo James Peters and Fynn Sterritt were forced to wait another day.
"Fickle winds there, we had a good wind forecast and we thought it was going to be on." Peters said. "We were fully expecting to just get it done and come in and it be finished.
"The wind just retreated across the bay so we got two races away and neither of them were able to finish because there was no wind. Long day and no racing."
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