From car park to arena for 'world record performances': Facility for Singapore World Aquatics Champs unveiled

SINGAPORE: A new 4,800 capacity arena to host the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore was unveiled on Monday (Jun 16), less than a month before the meet begins.

Built in the car park next to Leisure Park Kallang mall, the facility has a competition as well as practice pool with the same specifications. Foundation work began in December last year, with construction from January to May this year.

The arena will host swimming and artistic swimming competitions during the Championships, and also stage the World Aquatics Masters Championships’ swimming and water polo events.

Measuring 50m by 26m and with a depth of 3m, the competition pool was designed with "incredible performances" in mind, said Mr Mark Chay, co-chair of the Singapore 2025 organising committee.

This is significantly deeper than the 2.15m La Defense competition pool at last year's Paris Olympics, which had been criticised by some for being too shallow, resulting in fewer records broken.

"You can look at the whole infrastructure here, the overflow gutters, the kind of lighting that is required for broadcast, and, of course, the opportunity to host this many people in one venue, it really is designed for world record performances," said Mr Chay, an ex-national swimmer.

"We give all our athletes the opportunity from start to finish, to actually perform at their best."

The facility makes use of the starting blocks from the Paris Games, with pool temperatures kept at a constant range of 25-28 degrees Celsius.

Ahead of the Championships, the facility will host the artistic swimming and swimming competitions for the Southeast Asian Age Group Aquatics Championships later this week.

The World Aquatics Championships, which features the six sports of swimming, water polo,