Aurora Bangor: Faulty pool hampers Paris 2024 Olympic training

Coach Kevin Anderson (fifth from right) with athletes from the Swim Ireland National Centre Ulster

Athletes' livelihoods are "at risk" because of ongoing problems at Northern Ireland's only Olympic-standard pool, a leading swimming coach has said.

Faults with mechanical pool floors have plagued the Aurora in Bangor, County Down, for three-and-a-half years.

Diving has not been permitted since July 2020, when the floor of the 25m diving pool malfunctioned.

A temporary fix for the 50m swimming pool was completed in late October, but it broke again in December.

Aurora's owner, Ards and North Down Borough Council, said contractors would arrive on Tuesday "to investigate the latest failure".

"After this inspection has been completed, an estimated date of return for 50m swimming will be determined," it told BBC News NI.

But Swim Ireland's head coach in Ulster, Kevin Anderson, said he "can't depend on this facility" to coach swimmers for the 2024 Olympic Games in August.

"I know the council are looking into the idea of replacing the floor altogether, but that's gonna take some time," he said.

"We don't have time to wait - our Olympic trials are in May."

He and others are calling for temporary changes to the configuration of Aurora's two biggest pools to give athletes the best chance to train.

What is the problem?

The floor of the main pool was designed to rise up and down so it can spilt into three sections of varying lengths and depths for different activities.

The biggest issue is that swimmers cannot practice 50m lengths because a moveable floor got stuck in the pool's 25m format.

"Now, not only can we not train in a 50m-long course pool, but we can't even use starting blocks to dive off," Mr Anderson said.

Aurora's main pool was built as a 10-lane, Olympic-standard facility

The coach argued competitors were "treated as a second-class citizens" because of the lack of Olympic-standard facilities in Northern Ireland.

"You're trying to get qualifying times just to make national teams," he explained.

"We're talking €20,000 (£17,000) a year of sport funding that helps them live and train and represent Ireland and Northern Ireland at the highest levels internationally.

"So you're putting these people in a great deal of risk. "

Mr Anderson has already booked pre-Olympic training trips to Spain and South Africa.

"I'm going to spend tens of thousands of pounds taking my athletes off the island so they're going get exposure to dependable long-course preparation," he said.

How are athletes affected?

Paralympian Barry McClements trains in Aurora for four hours a day, six days a week, in the hope of qualifying for the Paris games.

The 21-year-old from Newtownards won Northern Ireland's first ever Commonwealth Games swimming medal last year.

Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Barry McClements is aiming to get on the Paralympic podium in September

"I train 06:30 to 08:30, and then again at 16:30 to 18:30 in the evening, and then I would sometimes have a gym session in between," he says.

"Unfortunately Bangor, it is a very good facility, but with the amount of breaks we don't get a lot of 50m training."

The swimmer competes in the S9 category due to having had one leg amputated above his knee.

He came fifth at the 2023 World Para Swimming Championships and his coach believes he could get on the Paralympic podium this year.

But due to floor faults, Mr McClements only had three weeks of 50m swimming this season before the latest malfunction.

"Long-course training is just better, you can feel that you're working harder," he said.

"You feel more confident to go into racing because you know you've been training this length of a pool just as much as anybody else.

"And when it breaks, it's frustrating and disappointing because you're losing all that training and mental strength."

Barry McClements competing in the Men's S9 100 metre Butterfly heats at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games

The swimmer, his coach and others argue Aurora's main pool floor should be left at a fixed depth to allow athletes to train uninterrupted in a 50m facility.

The council has a responsibility to provide a public pool, but Mr McClements points out Aurora has a separate 25-metre pool which could be used for leisure and swimming lessons.

Diving academy 'decimated'

The second pool was designed to flexibly transform from a 4m-deep diving tank into a 2m-deep swimming pool.

However, its floor mechanism got stuck in a shallow position in 2020 and the water is no longer deep enough to permit diving.

"Our diving programme is completely decimated," said former Diving Academy Northern Ireland coach Alan Cogan.

"We have lost a lot of talent to other sports."

Before the diving pool malfunctioned, his organisation was training about 150 people, including a squad of promising athletes who took part in competitions across the UK and Ireland.

Three divers were earmarked for the "Commonwealth pathway" with hopes of qualifying for the prestigious games.

"Our last competition was in Aberdeen in 2019," Mr Cogan said.

A minimum depth of water is required for safe diving

He explained the diving pool floor broke the day after his squad's first post-Covid diving session in July 2020 and has been out of action since.

"It's very frustrating," Mr Cogan added.

"Nobody's done it on purpose, but the whole process of getting it fixed is way, way too slow."

He also argues the "wrong floor" was chosen when Aurora was constructed and fears it could be years before it is replaced.

Swimmers cannot even get off the starting blocks at Aurora

What has the council said?

The council confirmed it was "in legal dispute with several companies concerning the floor system" in addition to its long-term plan to replace the floor.

It also said it was considering suggestions for fixed pool depths as a temporary measure, but warned this would "likely have a detrimental impact on community use because it offers only deep waters suitable for confident swimmers".

"That would result in a loss of access and service to the general public, significantly impact on the swimming lesson programme (which currently caters for more than 2,600 children) and lead to financial impacts that would be passed on to the council and ultimately the ratepayers."

It added: "All parties are committed to continuing to work in partnership to find a long-term solution."