Sport - Swimming

Montreal gets back World championship

FRANKFURT, FEB. 10 . This year's World swimming championships were handed back to the Canadian city of Montreal by the sport's governing body on Thursday. Montreal was stripped of the championships on January 19 because of budget problems.

The problems have been resolved and FINA has decided to stage the championships as originally planned, from July 17 to 31 in Montreal, the world body said in a statement after an emergency meeting of its board in Frankfurt.

Besides the resolution of organisers' financial headaches, FINA said it also decided to reinstate the championships because it had received appeals to change its mind from organisations and residents in the Canadian city.

It also pointed to potential logistical problems surrounding the cancellation, noting that many national swimming federations had made travel and hotel bookings for their athletes and team officials well before last month's decision. Montreal was awarded the 2005 championships four years ago. The last World championships were held in 2003 in Barcelona, Spain.

After FINA stripped Montreal of the championships, Athens, Berlin and Moscow offered to host them. The world body said it ``expresses its gratitude and appreciation to the three 2005 bidders.'' — AP

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