Top Irish swimmers train in only half of Olympic-size pool

After years of complaints about the lack of an Olympic-size swimming pool here, Ireland's top swimmers are doing half of their training in a 25-metre section of the new 50-metre pool outside Dublin.

Four months after the opening of the National Aquatic Centre at Abbotstown, the governing body for the sport, Swim Ireland, has agreed a contract in which top swimmers will train for half of their allocated time at Abbotstown in a 25-metre section of the Olympic-size pool. The contract will run into next year.

The hours agreed for the international swimmers are from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. , with an additional two-hour session in the evening. The state-of-the-art pool can be divided into sections, and after the morning sessions in which its full 50 metres is used, it is then divided into two 25-metre pools for commercial use for the rest of the day.

It is not converted back to its full length for the athletes' evening sessions.

"An analogy would be that if they built the velodrome (bike race track) as part of the whole facility and then sectioned it off at the half-way point," said former European breaststroke silver medallist and double Olympian, Dr Gary O'Toole.

"They could then allow people pay in so that they could try out the velodrome on one side. But the elite cyclists on the other side would then have to stop their bikes half-way around, turn and cycle back around just one part of the track.

"It is a terrible indictment of the whole thing that they should swim a short course in such an arena. I do understand the financial constraints of running a facility like this but it seems crazy, from a Swim Ireland point of view, that they would agree to the 25-metre length."

The facility was officially opened on March 10th of this year by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.

At the opening he stressed that the centre would be part of Ireland's sporting infrastructure, and had been developed in the context of the Irish Sports Council's strategy.

"This strategy aims to achieve excellence, performance and participation," Mr Ahern said.

"Our elite swimmers will have reserved hours in the pool to help them achieve these goals."