{"id":35477,"date":"2012-08-23T00:15:41","date_gmt":"2012-08-22T22:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=35477"},"modified":"2012-08-23T00:15:41","modified_gmt":"2012-08-22T22:15:41","slug":"newlands-aquatic-centre-to-become-cape-towns-jewel-in-swimmings-crown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/newlands-aquatic-centre-to-become-cape-towns-jewel-in-swimmings-crown\/","title":{"rendered":"Newlands Aquatic Centre to become Cape Town’s ‘jewel in swimming’s crown’!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>If the London 2012 Olympic Games proved one thing, then it is that South Africa has very fine swimmers, given the two golds that Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh brought back home, as well as Le Clos’ silver medal. Now the City of Cape Town has announced its plans to transform the Newlands swimming pool into an international standard Aquatics Centre, to develop more golden swimming stars for the country.<\/p>\n

The City of Cape Town will develop the pool in conjunction with Swimming SA, reports the Cape Argus.<\/strong> It is planned to make the Aquatics Centre commercial, to finance the pool’s upgrade. \u00a0The upgrade will make the pool the ‘jewel in swimming’s crown in greater Cape Town<\/em>‘. \u00a0The planned upgrade will enhance Newlands’ reputation as the top sporting centre of Cape Town, the suburb already being the home of rugby and cricket.<\/p>\n

Plans are to develop the pool, to allow swimming, diving, synchronised swimming, and water polo, to allow the development of these water sports at international level.<\/p>\n

Due to a restriction of funds, which did not allow the South African Olympic team to travel to London ahead of the Olympic Games to train there, ex-South African Olympic 2000 swimming team member Princess\"\"<\/a> Charl\u00e8ne of Monaco invited the team to Monaco, to practice in their pool facilities. Her pride in the team’s medal tally was even greater as a result, having given them moral support at the poolside in Monaco, and proudly supporting her team in London. She flew to Durban 10 days ago, to present funds from her Princess Charl\u00e8ne Foundation for the upgrade of the Pinetown pool, at which she used to train, and which is the home pool of Chad le Clos.<\/p>\n

The Sunday Argus<\/strong> has reported that Cape Town and Durban are vying for the title of Aquatics Capital of the country. Durban is said to be bidding to host the Olympic Games in 2024, and its Kings Park pool is already deemed to be world class.<\/p>\n

Once Cape Town has an international standard Aquatics Centre, international events relating to water sports can be hosted, which could become a boost for our tourism industry.<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/a> Twitter: @WhaleCottage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If the London 2012 Olympic Games proved one thing, then it is that South Africa has very fine swimmers, given the two golds that Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh brought back home, as well as Le Clos’ silver medal. Now the City of Cape Town has announced its plans to transform the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[3,124,22,21],"tags":[16691,32366,16640,32378,257,1037,16694,16690,16689,16697,16696,1410,357,16692,16695,16693,32373],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t