Surf Life Saving Great Britain event suspended due to lack of funding
Plans to hold an international life-saving competition in Cornwall have been suspended because of lack of funds to build a 50m (164ft) swimming pool.
Surf Life Saving Great Britain (SLSGB) said it had been unable to raise £750,000 to install the Olympic-size pool needed to run Rescue 2010.
The event had been scheduled to take place in Newquay in June next year.
SLSGB said a scaled-down event may still take place in Newquay. A decision is expected at the end of this month.
Considering options
Adam Wooler, acting chief executive of SLSGB, said: “We are now looking at other options.
“Towards the end of the month we will know if we can hold the event and in what form it will be.”
He said a scaled-down event would involve national teams competing in a 50m pool outside Cornwall, as well as on Fistral beach.
But the International Life Saving Federation (ILSF), in charge of the competition, could decide to hold it outside the UK or cancel it altogether.
The Rescue 2010 games, which usually attracts about 4000 competitors, were awarded to Newquay by the ILSF in 2007.
But SLSGB said the current economic climate had made generating corporate sponsorship and grant funding for a pool “difficult”.
Some members of Newquay council have now suggested that a £10,000 donation given to SLSGB for its bid should be returned to tax payers.
The first Surf Life Saving World Championships were held in 1994 at Newquay and Cardiff. They are now held biannually.
Source: BBC
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