Swimming records expected to tumble at World Aquatics C'ships arena in Singapore
The newly-constructed WCH Arena, one of the competition venues for the World Aquatics Championships. ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG
SINGAPORE – Fans can expect record-breaking feats at the July 11-Aug 3 World Aquatics Championships (WCH) in Singapore, as event organisers give the media a first look and back-of-house tour of the WCH Arena on June 16.
Built in Carpark G near the Kallang Tennis and Kallang Football Hub, the main attraction of the sheltered, purpose-built facility constructed by Kin Productions is the long-course pool which will host the swimming (July 27-Aug 3) and artistic swimming (July 18-25) events. A warm-up pool with the same dimensions is located in a separate block.
Measuring 50m by 26m with a depth of three metres, the competition pool is notably wider and deeper than the Paris Olympics' temporary pool at the La Defense Arena, which was one metre narrower and had a depth of 2.15m.
At Paris 2024, there were four new world records and 17 Olympic records. There is a realistic prospect of more record-breaking feats here, as swimmers tend to prefer a deeper pool because the increased depth reduces water turbulence and calmer waters generally result in faster times.
The pool of the newly-constructed WCH Arena.
ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG
Foundation work for the WCH Arena began in December 2024, and construction was done from January to May.
With a seating capacity of 4,800, there is a compact feel to the facility, which is about one-third of the size of temporary facilities constructed for recent world championships.
At the 2024 edition in Doha, Qatar, swimming and artistic swimming were hosted inside the 15,500-capacity Aspire Dome, while in 2023 swimming was held at the 15,000-seater Marine Messe Fukuoka Hall A – part of the Fukuoka Convention Centre – with average daily attendances ranging from 3,000 to 5,000.
Singapore's WCH Arena stands out for its red seats and red OSB11 starting blocks, which are the same as those used at Paris 2024.
The seats are positioned at a 32-degree angle, providing spectators with a better viewing experience. This differs from the standard 17-degree angle which is typically adopted for spectator seats at other events in Singapore.
Four 14m by 3m screens above the spectator seating and a 29m by 3m bigger screen on the south wall will display results and replays, with 46m by 1m screens along the length of the pool for sponsors' logos.
The stands of the newly-constructed WCH Arena.
ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG
The venue will also have a fan zone with interactive activities, merchandise areas, sponsors' booths, and food and beverage stalls.
At the one-year countdown to the WCH in 2024, Alan Goh, 2025 World Aquatics Championships organising committee co-chairperson and chief executive officer of Sport Singapore, had said that 'there are many factors we took into consideration when selecting the venue'.
The 50,000-seater National Stadium was initially mooted as the venue for swimming but in January 2024 it was reported that swimming and artistic swimming could instead be held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Six months later, organisers revealed that a temporary facility would be built instead.
Goh said then: 'Of course, National Stadium and Indoor Stadium were (involved in discussions) as well. But when we had discussions with World Aquatics, it was clear that the National Stadium with its 50,000 capacity is way over the typical attendance for the event.
'So on balance, and having considered factors such as cost, factors such as downtime of the Indoor Stadium and National Stadium, the decision was best to hold the events in the Aquatic Centre and build a very nice facility in Carpark G.'
The temporary facility could be used as a training or competition venue for local and regional meets before and after the championships, he said.
The Straits Times understands that one consideration is for Singapore Aquatics to use the venue to prepare for competitions such as the 2029 SEA Games held here, while the Toa Payoh Swimming Complex is currently being renovated.
The pool of the newly-constructed WCH Arena.
ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG
Over 2,500 athletes from more than 190 countries and territories will compete in the six aquatic disciplines at the world championships.
The water polo and diving events will be held at the OCBC Aquatic Centre, while Sentosa will host open-water swimming (Palawan Beach) and high diving (Palawan Green).
The June 19-29 Southeast Asia Age Group Aquatics Championships, a youth aquatics competition comprising over 500 athletes from across the region, will serve as a test event for the WCH.
The swimming (June 25-27) and artistic swimming (June 20-22) will be the first competitions held at the WCH Arena, while water polo (June 19-22) and diving (June 27-29) will take place at the OCBC Aquatic Centre.
David Lee is senior sports correspondent at The Straits Times focusing on aquatics, badminton, basketball, cue sports, football and table tennis.
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Times
30 minutes ago
- Business Times
How an empty car park became a world-class swimming arena in under six months
[SINGAPORE] The task was as daunting as any that Ko Chee Wah, the chairman of Kin Productions, had faced in his long career. In less than six months, his company had to construct, from scratch, a purpose-built facility that would be the main venue for this year's World Aquatics Championships (WCH) in Singapore, which will take place over three weeks from Jul 11. The WCH Arena, as it is now called, is located on the site of a former open-air car park next to the Leisure Park Kallang mall, a short walk from the National Stadium. The sheltered arena can accommodate up to 4,800 spectators and will be where most of the 2,500 athletes from nearly 200 countries and territories will compete. The competition features six aquatic disciplines: swimming, diving, high diving, open water swimming, artistic swimming and water polo. Construction began in January, with foundation work starting a month earlier. The completion of the WCH Arena is on time to hold a test event (the South-east Asian Age Group Aquatics Championships) later this week, followed by the WCH itself next month. The arena will also host the World Aquatics Masters Championships' swimming and water polo events from Jul 26 to Aug 22. Speaking to reporters during a tour of the arena on Monday (Jun 16), Ko said this was one of his agency's most challenging projects to date. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 2 pm Lifestyle Our picks of the latest dining, travel and leisure options to treat yourself. Sign Up Sign Up 'After we won the tender, we were told we had to deliver the contract in a maximum of six months. (The site was) an empty car park of about 250,000 square feet, and we had to build this big facility for the public and athletes – one that meets international safety standards and conforms to all the regulatory requirements,' he said. Kin Productions chairman Ko Chee Wah said the construction and delivery of the new WCH Arena was one of his company's most challenging projects to date. PHOTO: WCH There were other issues to deal with too, such as the frequent bouts of inclement weather in the first few weeks of the year that caused some delays to the building process. Long before the design and construction began, Ko and his team also accompanied officials from national sports agency Sport Singapore and governing body Singapore Aquatics on visits to major swimming events in cities such as Fukuoka and Doha, to study how such international meets were staged. One of the key features of the WCH Arena is how the seats have been positioned at a 32-degree angle, meant to give spectators a much better viewing experience. The seats for other events in Singapore are usually at the standard 17-degree angle. The competition pool holds 3.9 million litres of water, which is kept at a constant temperature between 25 and 28 degrees Celsius. It took an entire week to fill the pool. Former national swimmer Mark Chay, the co-chair of the WCH Singapore organising committee, said that discussions are still ongoing as to what will happen to the arena – which was built as a temporary facility – after the competition is over. There is some talk that Singapore Aquatics could make use of the arena to prepare for competitions, such as the next SEA Games that Singapore will host in 2029. When asked about the final cost to build the arena and whether it was within budget, Chay chose not to disclose any figures at this point. He would only let on that what the government spent was 'comparable' to what it cost Fukuoka and Doha to stage the World Aquatic Championships in 2023 and 2024, respectively. 'We looked at the cost of (what those two cities spent) and we did our own assessments. For those championships, they built temporary venues for all the events. In Singapore, we are using the existing OCBC Aquatics Centre, and we built this WCH Arena. We are having some events at Sentosa too,' said Chay. On Monday, it was also announced that Singtel is the official connectivity partner of the WCH 2025. The telco will provide 'seamless, secure and high-performance connectivity' across multiple competition venues, said Singtel Singapore chief executive officer Ng Tian Chong.
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
ST Full-time Report: Expect fast times at World Aquatics C'ships in S'pore
Welcome to the latest edition of ST Full-time Report, where the best sports content from The Straits Times is delivered to your inbox every Monday evening. Subscribe here for the weekly updates. Dear ST reader, There is a realistic prospect of more record-breaking feats at the July 11-Aug 3 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, as the swimming pool at the purpose-built facility is deeper than the temporary pool for the Paris Olympics, which means less water turbulence. Meanwhile, Welsh footballer Kai Whitmore, whose grandfather was born in Singapore, has expressed interest to play for the Republic. The 24-year-old midfielder, who plies his trade with English League Two side Newport County, was in town recently to find out more about the process. In other news, the Kallang Basin Swimming Complex and St Wilfred Sport Centre will close in the second half of 2025, with both sites possibly used for public housing. For the latest news on Singapore sports, check out ST Sport.
CNA
an hour ago
- CNA
From car park to arena for 'world record performances': Facility for Singapore World Aquatics Champs unveiled
SINGAPORE: A new 4,800 capacity arena to host the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore was unveiled on Monday (Jun 16), less than a month before the meet begins. Built in the car park next to Leisure Park Kallang mall, the facility has a competition as well as practice pool with the same specifications. Foundation work began in December last year, with construction from January to May this year. The arena will host swimming and artistic swimming competitions during the Championships, and also stage the World Aquatics Masters Championships' swimming and water polo events. Measuring 50m by 26m and with a depth of 3m, the competition pool was designed with "incredible performances" in mind, said Mr Mark Chay, co-chair of the Singapore 2025 organising committee. This 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. "You can look at the whole infrastructure here, the overflow gutters, the kind of lighting that is required for broadcast, and, of course, the opportunity to host this many people in one venue, it really is designed for world record performances," said Mr Chay, an ex-national swimmer. "We give all our athletes the opportunity from start to finish, to actually perform at their best." The facility makes use of the starting blocks from the Paris Games, with pool temperatures kept at a constant range of 25-28 degrees Celsius. Ahead of the Championships, the facility will host the artistic swimming and swimming competitions for the Southeast Asian Age Group Aquatics Championships later this week. The World Aquatics Championships, which features the six sports of swimming, water polo, diving, artistic swimming, open water swimming and high diving, will be held from Jul 11 to Aug 3. Singapore was picked as the host after the biennial event was relocated from the Russian city of Kazan in response to the invasion of Ukraine. "VERY POSITIVE" TICKET SALES Mr Chay said that the arena represents "how far the sporting landscape has come". "And to build this from scratch .... in such a short period of time, really is a testament of our industry prowess. Of course, our different partnerships, both in government as well as non-government and private sectors as well," he added. Speaking to the media, Mr Ko Chee Wah, chairman of Kin Productions, which oversaw the design and build of the arena, said that the idea was to build a facility akin to a permanent structure. "It was really quite intimidating ... to build such a big facility within a period of six months. And although the specification was to build a temporary structure, you cannot build a temporary structure when you are going to cater to the public coming in, you have to provide a facility that is as safe as a permanent structure," he added. "So you are actually building a permanent structure, and it has to conform to all the regulatory requirements from the government and the agencies and do the specifications and technical requirements of the World Aquatics Championship body." The full costs of building the temporary facility and hosting the event has not been publicly revealed. In February this year, then Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth Eric Chua said that construction cost of the temporary facility is still being finalised, but it is expected to be "comparable" to the cost borne by other host cities that built temporary facilities to host the event. He added that tourist revenue generated from the upcoming World Aquatics and World Aquatics Masters Championships is projected to hit S$60 million (US$44.7 million), with 40,000 international visitors expected at the month-long event in Singapore. Mr Chay echoed similar comments on Monday when asked about the cost of the arena and whether it was within the budget. "At these major championships, they built temporary venues for all events. But for us, we're using an existing venue at OCBC Aquatic Center for two of our major events - diving as well as water polo. And we built this facility for swimming as well as artistic swimming, and of course, in Sentosa, we'll have open water and diving," he said. "I'm happy to say that the cost of organising this, building this facility, is comparable to that of Doha as well as Fukuoka (World Championships)." Late last year, the Pan Pacific Hotels Group, Trans-Eurokars Mazda and OCBC were unveiled as the event's hotel, automobile and banking partners, with Singtel on Monday announced as the official network connectivity partner of the meet. Mr Chay added authorities are "in the middle" of assessing what will happen with the arena after the meet. "The focus is really building the arena, getting it up, getting it in shape to welcome the world, building for high performance aquatics performances," he said. Ticket sales for the event have been "very positive", he added, with tickets sold out on some "key events and key dates", said Mr Chay. He also said that he was confident that the event will generate "tremendous enthusiasm". "The World Aquatics Championships is one of the most prestigious events in the world of aquatics, second only to the Olympic Games. It is an honour for Singapore to host this global showcase that will bring together the best of aquatics athletes from around the world," he said.
