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Business Times
7 hours ago
- Sport
- 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
13 hours ago
- Sport
- Straits Times
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.
