'Looking positive' that temporary facility for World Aquatics Champs will remain for some time: SportSG chief
Speaking at the event's opening press conference, Mr Goh gave what is the clearest indication so far that the facility which was built in the car park next to the Leisure Park Kallang mall will be available for public use.
"Indeed, we started out building pools that's temporary, again taking reference from past editions of World Aquatics (Championships)," said Mr Goh, who is also co-chairperson of the championships along with former Olympian Mark Chay.
"But as we progressed the project along, we also started to think about whether it made sense to try to explore ways of keeping the pool beyond (the) duration of the championships. And that is looking positive."
While he stopped short of confirming the move, Mr Goh said that authorities are hoping that Singaporeans will benefit from the arena as well.
"We will share the confirmation when it's ready, but I'll just say that ... having built a nice facility which is hosting world-class aquatics competition events, we do look to keep it for a little longer and then have Singaporeans benefit from (being able) to use the place," he said.
The World Aquatics Championships will be held in Singapore from Jul 11 to Aug 3, with about 40,000 international visitors – comprising spectators, athletes, officials, production crew and media expected.
A new 4,800-capacity arena, which was built in the car park next to Leisure Park Kallang, will host the championships' swimming and artistic swimming events. The water polo and diving competitions will be held at the OCBC Aquatic Centre, while the high diving and open water swimming events will be held in Sentosa.
In February, then Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth Eric Chua said that authorities were also studying the possibility of using the temporary facility as a training and competition venue for other meets and for athlete training, and of making it available for public use.
"FANTASTIC FACILITY"
Speaking on Thursday, World Aquatics president Husain Al Musallam thanked organisers for their "hard work and difficult work".
"Singapore is the first country in Southeast Asia hosting the World Aquatics Championships, with a fantastic facility. And the facility is (a) continuation of the legacy of the Youth Olympic Games in 2010," he said.
What the world swimming body is looking out for is that venues must be "fit" for technical requirements and for the seating capacities of venues to be "based on the experience" of what the host nation expects, added Mr Al Musallam.
Singapore was picked as the host after the biennial event was relocated from the Russian city of Kazan in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The championships feature the six disciplines of swimming, water polo, diving, artistic swimming, open water swimming and high diving.
Among the big names expected to vie for top honours in Singapore are American legend Katie Ledecky, France's hotshot Leon Marchand and 18-year-old Canadian swimming sensation Summer Mcintosh.
The main competition pool measures 50m by 26m and has a depth of 3m. Foundation work for the venue began in December last year, with construction taking place from January to May this year.
The pool is significantly deeper than the 2.15m La Defense competition pool at last year's Paris Olympics, which had been criticised by some for being too shallow, resulting in fewer records broken.
The facility made use of the starting blocks from the Paris Games, with pool temperatures kept at a constant range of 25 to 28 degrees Celsius.
And this makes it a "very nice pool to swim in", said local Olympian Gan Ching Hwee.
Gan, who holds multiple national records, will be part of the 72-strong home contingent set to compete at the meet.
"Feels like a fast pool ... I really love the lighting and how the sound of everyone's cheers (echoes) through the arena – it's very motivating," said Gan, who was in the stands at the venue to catch the Southeast Asian Age Group Aquatics Championships last month.
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- Straits Times
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