When Britain’s swimmers take to the water at the LEN European Short Course Championships next month they will be competing in a temporary pool.
That’s because the organisers are fitting two pools into the floor of the brand new 16,000 seater Royal Arena in Copenhagen, which is hosting German rock group Scorpions just days before the competition.
A British team including World Medallist Ross Murdoch, Olympic and World Champion Adam Peaty, World Champion Ben Proud and World Junior Champion Freya Anderson will be attending the championships next month in Denmark along with representatives from 27 other countries.
The venue will be transformed to include a 10 lane (25m x 26m) competition pool, a six lane (25m x 15m) warm up pool requiring 2.1 million litres of water to fill and a new raised pool deck and floor raised by 2m 12cm - covering the lower 12 rows of seating.
Mads Bang Aaen, Event Manager: “We move into the venue six hours after the concert finishes to build the pool, which will then take five to six days to fill.
“We did not have a swimming pool in Copenhagen that currently had the amount of seating required to host a European Championships and we wanted this to be this to be the first sporting event in the new arena.
“We have already sold 20,000 tickets across the five days and it is looking to be a fantastic event.”
The operation to install the new facilities will take just under a week, with the water taking approximately three days to drain away once the championships are over. The venue will then host a charity comedy concert within two weeks.
The LEN European Short Course Championships will take place at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen, Denmark from December 13 to 17.
To follow the Championships visit the British Swimming website.