Flawed design mars aquatics complex
Sept. 1: The Indian aquatics squad for the 19th Commonwealth Games are getting ready to begin a month-long preparatory camp in the capital on Wednesday. Now even though the starting date of the camp has been pushed back by a few days, the competition venue for the October 3 to 14 Games — the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Aquatics Complex — is far from being ready.
The organisers are certainly cutting it fine with the surface on the 10m platform board yet to be laid while the warm-up pool doesn’t have any starting blocks yet. In fact, the 10m diving event during the National Federation Cup here in July was cancelled since the surface wasn’t laid.
“The job of laying the surface is the responsibility of the Central Public Works Department (CPWD). We have been in touch with them and they have assured us that it will be completed within a week,” the CWG Organising Committee competition manager (aquatics) Kamlesh Nanavati told this paper.
“The starting blocks are being installed by a company called Omega from Singapore. They have promised to complete the work by September 10,” he added.
But these are not the end of the organisers’ problems. The false ceiling inside the warm-up area of the venue is so low that once a swimmer gets on the starting block he will invariably hit his head on the roof.
“The height of the ceiling on one side is a problem for the swimmers. It is very low, in fact, anyone above the height of 5ft 6in can bang his head on the ceiling once he gets on the starting block,” Olympic swimmer Sandeep Sejwal said.
The organisers however remained optimistic. Some of the top swimmers from Australia, Great Britain and South Africa will be competing at the CWG. Training in the lead up to the Games could be a major concern since the warm-up pool at the Games Village is also far from being complete.
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