£5m Olympic-size pool built two inches short

[Doggy Styles]

The tolerance of a 50 metre pool is + 3cm - 0cm (the pool can be slightly longer than 50m, but not shorter).

It is important for ratifying world records and all that jazz.

It is useful for training, because exact times matter in some training routines.

[AtW]

oh ffs you lazy brits - get some polish builders, they'll sort it out over weekend for a fiver.

sasguru

[TimberWolf]

It's only about half an hour's work for someone with a jack hammer. Millions of pounds don't go far these days. Kerching.

[Wodewick]

I know it spoils the fun of slagging off/moaning and all that but:

What is the actual tolerance in building a 50m/164(and a bit)ft or 164ft/49.98+m pool?

2" is about 1/10 of 1% of 164ft - I am sure some engineering tolerances are tighter than that but a swimming pool!!! Really?

[d000hg]

It's Olympic games we talking about here - who said it should be easy?

That pool was never going to be used for the Olympics. It's a training pool and for lower-level competitions.

[conned tractor]

It's obviously not olympic size then.....morons.

[Old Greg]

Grate 2 inches off each swimmer.

[shaunbhoy]

Why not just recess the touch-sensitive boards FFS?
It is only going to be used for training anyway............

[AtW]

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.

It's Olympic games we talking about here - who said it should be easy?

[Board Game Geek]

If everyone's competing on the same playing field (or swimming pool for that matter), then does it make any difference ?

If it does, then just make everyone stand back an extra 2 inches on the dive line, prior to the start of the race.

See ? It's easy to find an extra 2 inches when you look hard enough, eh <insert nickname of poster/celebrity/whatever>

[TimberWolf]

£millions to take off some tiles and bash out 2 inches of concrete? Boomed.

[amcdonald]

It must have been designed by a bloke thinking no one would notice two inches missing

[OwlHoot]

£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.