While most of the nations of the Pan Pacific are preparing for next year’s World Championships in Barcelona, a small corner of Australia’s Gold Coast swimming hotbed is diving headfirst into preparations for the upcoming 2014 Pan Pac Swimming Championships.
The Gold Coast Aquatic Centre will begin a “redevelopment” to allow it to hold the large-scale international event. This pool is the training ground to Southport Olympic, one of the country’s top programs that is home to, among others, Olympian Cameron McEvoy.
The Centre, originally named the “Southport Pool,” was first opened in the 1960’s. Hosting the event there makes a lot of sense: a $40 million renovation was already planned to prepare it to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games, with the timeline for that event simply moved forward to be ready for 2014.
“Bringing the redevelopment forward to accommodate the 2014 Pan Pacs shows great foresight from the Gold Coast City Council and Queensland Government and they should be commended on this decision.”
The complex already has a 10-lane, 50-meter competition pool, a 25-meter diving well, and a separate 8-lane 25-meter training pool, but will now include the addition of a 10-lane, 50-meter competition pool to meet FINA hosting specifications. Locker room and meeting facilities will also be enhanced to meet the needs of international hosting.
This meet is really-and-truly the beginning of the Olympic buildup. Aging athletes usually make the decision to commit for another run, and younger emerging teenage athletes begin to shift their focus from shorter yards swimming back to long course.
The current pool is an open-air facility, and though it has a brilliant backdrop of downtown Gold Coast, still has plenty of room for expansion in a city parklands area.
The economic advantage of being able to construct a facility to accomodate both of these meets is brilliant for the Australians. The event is to be held in August of 2014, though the exact dates are yet to be determined. The Queensland state is home to over 60% of Australia’s Olympic Team, so there is plenty of demand for more pools in the region anyway, and this huge complex will give more than sufficient warmup and cooldown space.
Australia was awarded the event, last held in Irvine, California in 2010, in May: no surprise as it was their turn in the rotation. Specifically, Queensland was named as the winning bidders, but the exact location (the two major cities are Brisbane and the Gold Coast) has not been announced until today.
Isn’t august a bit cold to have an open air pool swimming?