World Swimming Championship pools at MEN Arena

Edited by the Buildingtalk editorial team Apr 8, 2008

Tap turned on to start filling two massive swimming pools in the M.E.N. Arena, reports AstralPool, official partner to FINA, and the company behind the pools' build.

Head of FINA PR, 5 Times World Swimming Champion and proud Mancunian James Hickman was present when the tap was turned to start filling the two massive swimming pools in the MEN Arena and said "It's absolutely amazing to see these two enormous pools in the Arena".

"We were there earlier to watch the water being switched on; I can't believe how quickly the pools have been built".

The construction of the FINA World Swimming Championship pools in the M.E.N.

Arena is nearly complete with the tap being turned on to begin the mammoth task of filling them.

It will take a total of 56 hours to fill the pools and nearly 6 days to heat them to the required water temperature of between 25 and 28 degrees.

AstralPool, the company behind the pools' build say that work is going well and the next stage is to lay the palletised floor the carpets and install the necessary audio visual equipment.

The medals podium will then be built and finally the media area which will be large enough to welcome more than 200 international journalists during the event.

Bringing three firsts to the city; this five day event is the first World Swimming Championship of its kind to ever be staged in the UK - and - with 800 athletes from 130 different countries as confirmed entries is also set to be the biggest World Swimming Championships ever.

The Manchester Evening News Arena will be the first music and entertainment venue in the UK to host competitive swimming.

The main pool is a competition standard pool where the action will take place watched by over 7,500 spectators.

The second pool will be out of sight from the spectators and will be used by the athletes to warm up before they race and swim down afterwards.

United Utilities, official supplier for the event, are providing more than 2 million litres of water and helping to remove it responsibly after the event.

It will take a whole 24 hours to drain the pools.

Watch the pool build from our live web camera at the website.