Hungary will use its spring national championship meet as a grand opening for the brand-new pool that will host the 2017 World Championships.
The Hungarian Swimming Federation announced the meet on the Budapest 2017 website. The Hungarian National Championships will take place from April 19 through April 23 of 2017. That allows the pool to run a major event and work out any wrinkles before the World Championships in July.
Of special note: the Hungarian National Championships are described as an open meet, meaning foreign athletes can compete. The Budapest 2017 website even reports that invitations for athletes to compete have already gone out to all 207 of FINA’s national swimming federations. The announcement calls the meet an opportunity to “taste the water” that athletes will compete in during Worlds.
And it gets better for athletes: the World Championships Organizing Committee has already offered to award prize money for the Hungarian open meet, with the top three finishers in each event making money:
- 1st: $1500
- 2nd: $1000
- 3rd: $500
That’s the same amount of prize money given out on the FINA World Cup tour for individual medals.
The Hungarian open national championship meet will be part of a multi-sport event to open the facility. The festivities will also include a women’s World League water polo match, a men’s water polo match to be announced and what are called “diving and synchro spectacles.”
