UAE miss FINA World Championship deadline

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  • Grand start: Ryan Lochte was the star of the 2010 short course Worlds in Dubai.

    The Emirates is unlikely to submit a bid for the 2021 or 2023 World Aquatics Championships according to the UAE Swimming Federation leaving China, Japan, Turkey and Qatar as the four countries in the running to host the events.

    Argentina had pulled out of the running late August and it was believed the UAE would step in instead if they managed to put together a bid before Tuesday’s deadline.

    But no bid has been submitted as neither Abu Dhabi nor Dubai Sports Councils have shown interest.

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    “We have no approval from any governmental institution so unfortunately we have not submitted a bid,” technical director of the UAE Swimming Federation, Ayman Saad, told Sport360°. 

    “Abu Dhabi showed a bit of interest but they’re hosting the short course Worlds in 2020 so it would be tough for them to do both. 

    “We saw that most of the bidding nations are from Asia so it is basically a competition amongst Asian countries and when you submit a bid like this, you need the support of the Asian Swimming Federation. 

    “Also Doha submitted their bid already so it’s not wise to compete against a fellow Arab country. It wouldn’t help their cause or ours.”

    FINA, the world governing body of the sport, were set to make a dec-ision regarding the hosting of both showpiece events in a meeting in Dubai on November 8 but the date of that meeting has been pushed to January 30 according to Saad.

    “The meeting in which FINA will decide has been pushed from November to January so should anything change here, we know that they would accept a late bid from the UAE, Dubai especially, as we have a strong relationship with them,” he said.

    Dubai has previously hosted the 2010 FINA World Short Course Championships while Abu Dhabi will host the 2020 edition. But the UAE has never staged the FINA

    World Aquatics Championships – which includes all five disciplines of aquatic sports – even though Dubai had won the right to host the 2013 event before they changed their minds due to lack of government support, and it went to Barcelona instead. 

    Meanwhile, Saad revealed plans are in the works for creating a FINA-accredited development centre in Dubai which would cater to swimmers, coaches and officials, not just from the Middle East but from across the world.

    The centre should serve as a training hub and would be set up at the Hamdan Sports Complex. 

    “We would get world-class coaches to come and be based here in Dubai and it would a centre for FINA’s educational programmes,” says Saad.

    “The idea has already been app-roved by FINA but we are preparing the actual plans now to submit it for government approval.

    “The Arab world really needs a push in order to further spread the swimming culture and this centre would really help with that.”

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