FINA President Dr. Julio C. Maglione recently discussed preparations for the 10th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m), Dubai 2010 with members of the Dubai Higher Organising Committee.
FINA expressed its appreciation for the tremendous amount of work completed by the Dubai 2010 organising committee and the progress made in the construction of the Dubai Sports Complex. Furthermore, it is expected that the 10th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) from December 15-19, 2010 in Dubai will be a great success.
The project for the 15th FINA World Championships 2013 was also reviewed and in a mutual agreement, FINA and the Dubai authorities decided that Dubai would not go forward with the organisation of these championships.
Both Mattar Al Tayer, Deputy Chairman of the Higher Organising Committee and Deputy Chairman of the Dubai Sports Council, and President Maglione reaffirmed that Dubai has opted to concentrate on developing grassroots interest in swimming rather than go forward with another championships for elite athletes in three years.
“Our vision from the start was that hosting the 2010 World Championships would leave a legacy that would benefit residents in Dubai and throughout the UAE. Our goal after the championships is to encourage wider use of our new aquatic complex by the people who live here”, Al Tayer said.
“We believe that, at this stage, it is of paramount importance to further improve the impact of the aquatic disciplines in this Middle East region before staging a FINA World Championships with our five sports. The UAE authorities will certainly do their best to accomplish this goal and the first step towards achieving it will be the organisation of a very successful FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in December”, considered FINA President Dr. Julio C. Maglione.