Aquatics Centre filling ahead of Birmingham 2022 Games

The aquatics centre built for the 2022 Commonwealth Games is being filled with water ahead of the start of the competition.

The £73m building in Smethwick, four miles from host city Birmingham, will hold 66 medal events - more than any other venue - in the July competition.

In total 9.2 million pints of water are needed to fill the pool.

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, who visited the site on Thursday, said it was "pretty incredible".

"I think people are coming to be absolutely delighted," she said.

Ms Dorries said 2022 was going to be a year of celebration, with the games "really going to lift Birmingham and the West Midlands".

The aquatics centre will be in use for all 11 days of competition at the event, and afterwards will be made available to the public.

It is the only brand new venue being created for the games, with the first tiles laid in June 2021 by Nigel Huddleston, Minister for Sport.

It features a 50m-long (164ft) Olympic-sized swimming pool, a 25m (82ft) diving pool and 1,000 permanent spectator seats, with more temporary seats for the 2022 Games.

Filling began at the start of January, and is almost complete and will then be filtered.

Former Paralympic swimmer Ellie Simmonds, who is on the board for the games, said: "It is going to hold an incredible competition in a couple of months' time in Birmingham."

Earlier this week it was revealed Birmingham City Council faces a £25m shortfall of funding towards the games, and will likely be forced to use contingency funds if the gap is not met.

But the authority said the games were "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Birmingham" with the benefits to the city to include an investment package of of almost £1bn towards things like new homes and better public transport.

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