Warm up pool at Swimming Complex waits for equipment

NEW DELHI - The overseas athletes for the Oct 3-14 Commonwealth Games will start arriving here from Thursday, but the warm-up pool at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Swimming Complex is yet to be made operational.

The authorities say things will be in place latest by Saturday.

The Indian swimmers for the Games practising here found the warm-up pool at the stadium not ready and are training at the main pool.

“We found the facilities okay. But the starting blocks at the warm-up pool are still to be fixed. We can still manage but the overseas swimmers will be here soon and they will give them (organisers) hell,” a top Swimming Federation of India (SFI) official told IANS.

The stadium came under a lot of criticism during the test event in July because of basic technical flaws in the structure. There is no lift for the divers to reach the board, and the staircase leading to the top are so narrow that the swimmers neeeded to be cautioned with a notice “mind your head.”

A media tour 10 days ago revealed that the electronic scoreboard, the anti-slippery mat for the highboard diving and the starting blocks (12) for the warm up pool are still to be placed. Media were told the equipments will arrive by Sep 19.

When asked whether these things have been put in place, Competition Manager, Kamlesh Nanavati told IANS that though all the three diving boards have been fixed, the starting blocks for the warm-up pool, and the electronic scoreboard, will only arrive by Saturday or Sunday.

“All these equipment is coming from Singapore and should be here by the weekend. The anti-slippery surfaces on all the three diving boards have been fixed and they are ready,” Nanavati said.

“As far as I know, the swimmers will be here not before Sep 27. The stadium will be ready by that time.”

The problems at the swimming complex, refurbished at Rs.377 crore, came to the fore after a swimmer was injured during the test event from a loosely held tile. The complex has a capacity of 5,000.