Khaleel Al Jabir, President, Qatar Swimming Association, and Fina Executive Director Cornel Marculescu during a press conference in Doha yesterday. Fina, the global swimming body yesterday announced that Qatar will host the Fina Swimming World Championship (25m) and the third World Aquatics Convention next year in December.
BY RIZWAN REHMAT
DOHA: The Qatari capital will host the Fina Swimming World Championship (25m) in December next year, the global swimming body announced yesterday.
The Qatar Swimming Association (QSA) will also welcome more than 400 coaches for the 3rd World Aquatics Convention just a few days before the same event, Fina Executive Director Cornel Marculescu said yesterday.
Khaleel Al Jabir, President, QSA, yesterday said the new decisions have been finalised after Marculescu led a Fina delegation to oversee Qatar’s preparation for this year’s Fina/Arena Swimming World Cup.
State-of-the-art Hamad Aquatic Centre will host the event and the convention, Al Jabir confirmed.
“We’ve had wide-ranging discussions over the last two days. We are in no doubt that Qatar will do a fantastic job when it stages the World Championship and the World Aquatics Convention,” Marculescu said.
“The facilities here are superb. We saw that last year when Qatar hosted the Fina/Arena Swimming World Cup (in October 2012),” he added.
“The top swimmers last year told us they were very pleased with how everything was managed (during the Fina/Arena Swimming World Cup),” Marculescu said.
The Fina Executive Director said Doha will be the third destination to host the World Aquatics Convention.
The last two editions were held in Uruguay (2010) and Russia (2012).
The 2nd Fina World Aquatics Convention was held in Moscow from October 29 to November 1, 2012, bringing together leading aquatic coaches from around the world.
“The third Fina World Aquatics Convention in Doha will provide experts and amateurs a unique opportunity to meet leading figures of aquatics from across the world,” Al Jabir said.
“Such face to face discussions will ultimately accelerate the growth and development of aquatic sports,” Al Jabir added.
Marculescu said the previous two editions debated a series of sub-themes, including ‘how new thinking in aquatic venue design and operations helped promote the sport’.
The discussions in Moscow also centred around the importance of education and the role of new technologies and new media.
Marculescu said Fina will also issue an official guide recognizing the world’s best swimmers in every discipline of the sport.
“The Fina guide will be issued during the Swimming World Championship,” Marculescu said.
“Qatar is our home,” Marculescuo, a water polo player for Romania in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, said.
“I have visited the place before and I can see the sport development in this country,” he added.
Al Jabir said QSA was ‘committed to taking the sport of swimming forward’ as Doha stages world events in the coming years.
“Yes, we will have Qatari swimmers in the coming events. We had sent our swimmers to a world event in Istanbul also,” Al Jabir explained.
“By the time we approach the Fina Swimming World Championship (next year), I am sure our swimmers would have improved a great deal,” he said.
“We see many benefits of (hosting) such events. Qatar is not only continuously improving its building sports infrastructure in the country, but we are also targeting our athletes.
“We want to make them better and we will continue to back them at all levels,” he said.
Marculescu said Doha would host more than 400 coaches from around the world for the World Aquatics Convention. “I am talking about coaches who have trained and guided swimmers to medals at Olympic Games and World Championships. They will be in Doha to share and exchange their knowledge and experience,” Marculescu said. “In addition we will have representatives of companies backing swimming at the top level and experts from the field of sports medicine,” Marculescu added.
Al Jabir yesterday inked an agreement with Aspetar who have pledged to provide all assistance to participating swimmers during the Fina events to be held this year and in 2014.
Paul Djikstra, Chief Medical Officer, Aspetar, said: “It is a privilege to be associated with Qatar Olympic Committee and Qatar Swimming Association. We will provide every bit of assistance we can to players taking part in the coming (Fina) events. We look forward to the next year and a half as QSA and Aspetar join hands in this partnership.”
Marculescu said ‘Fina was satisfied with Qatar’s preparation for Fina/Arena Swimming World Cup’ to be held in October this year. THE PENINSULA
