SINGAPORE: A historic World Aquatics Championships, which is set to welcome some of sport’s top names to Singapore, was officially declared open on Thursday (June 10).
The opening ceremony was held at the Singtel Waterfront Theatre, with President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth David Neo, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu and Minister for Law Edwin Tong among those in attendance. Also present was World Aquatics president Husain Al Musallam.
The Championships will be held in Singapore from Jul 11 to Aug 3, with about 40,000 international visitors – comprising spectators, athletes, officials, production crew and media expected.
This is the first time the sporting event has been hosted by a Southeast Asian nation.
It will feature the six aquatic disciplines: swimming, water polo, diving, artistic swimming, open water swimming and high diving. The meet will begin with water polo group stage matches on Friday.
In his speech, Mr Tharman described it as “a real honour” for Singapore to host the meet.
“As Captain Husain observed, it’s a special moment for Singapore because it’s also the year in which we celebrate our 60th anniversary since independence,” he added.
Mr Tharman said that even amid competition, sport has the power to unite.
“But what we celebrate too, in a quiet but profound way, is how sport can bring us together, even when we are rooting for different teams,” he added.
“In a world increasingly divided, sports reminds us that we can strive together, even as we compete; that we can demonstrate our common humanity.”
