The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has changed the dates for the 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, moving the event a week earlier.
The meet will now be held from July 13th-19th instead of July 18th-25th.
This is a meet that has been in a little bit of fluctuation since it was first awarded to the Tollcross International Swimming Centre, that this year will host the swimming portion of the Commonwealth Games. The meet was originally scheduled as a European Championship, but the IPC upgraded the event to a World Championship: continued signs of the growth of Para-swimming globally, but especially in Europe.
Xavier Gonzalez, the CEO of the IPC, is confident in Glasgow’s ability to host.
Xavier Gonzalez, IPC Chief Executive Officer, said: “Glasgow has everything needed to stage our World Championships and we are looking forward to working with British Swimming, UK Sport, EventScotland and Glasgow City Council to make these Championships a fantastic event.”
Britain, as the hosts of the 2012 Paralympic Games, fell in love with stars like Josef Craig, Jonathan Fox, the Hynd brothers, and especially Ellie Simmonds.
The 2013 IPC Swimming World Championships saw 530 athletes representing 57 different nations, spread across 172 events. The 2015 Worlds, however, will greatly pare done the number of events in the run-in to Rio, hosting only 152 events.
Still, the IPC is anticipating over 650 athletes. Numbers are very important to IPC swimming, as the broad number of classifications can leave thin competition. A deeper competitive field will only serve to increase both fan and participant interest in the sport.
This move will eliminate the two days of planned overlap with the 2015 FINA World Aquatics Championships. Even that conflict was not initially intended, but FINA moved the World Aquatics Championships to avoid conflict with the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto. Now, instead of FINA Worlds coming before IPC Worlds, they will come after IPC Worlds.
