£5m Olympic-size pool built two inches short
A new £5 million 'Olympic-size' swimming pool in Portsmouth has been built two inches too short for international competition.
The eight-lane pool at Mountbatten Leisure Centre is 50 metres in length but international standard pools need to have an extra two inches so that touch-sensitive time boards can be installed.
The Liberal Democrat council in charge of the project have denied that they have blundered in the construction of the pool but opponents say the decision could cost the city millions as it had been earmarked as a training venue for London 2012 athletes.
I suppose the easiest way to add two inches, without having to hack away at tiles etc, would be to use slightly oblique lanes, with perhaps one fewer lane. You'd have to shift one end over by several feet relative to the other to add a couple of inches to the hypotenuse of the triangle formed by the current and new lanes; but it would just about be doable.
Not sure if it would be realistic for olympic training though, if the swimmers are used to gauging their position against the sides of the pool as well as their own lanes.
A new £5 million 'Olympic-size' swimming pool in Portsmouth has been built two inches too short for international competition.
The eight-lane pool at Mountbatten Leisure Centre is 50 metres in length but international standard pools need to have an extra two inches so that touch-sensitive time boards can be installed.
The Liberal Democrat council in charge of the project have denied that they have blundered in the construction of the pool but opponents say the decision could cost the city millions as it had been earmarked as a training venue for London 2012 athletes.
I suppose the easiest way to add two inches, without having to hack away at tiles etc, would be to use slightly oblique lanes, with perhaps one fewer lane. You'd have to shift one end over by several feet relative to the other to add a couple of inches to the hypotenuse of the triangle formed by the current and new lanes; but it would just about be doable.
Not sure if it would be realistic for olympic training though, if the swimmers are used to gauging their position against the sides of the pool as well as their own lanes.
Comment