Heated indoor swimming pool for Gozo

Recently, Eindhoven, in The Netherlands, hosted the 29th European Swimming Championships.

A 13-year-old British schoolboy, Tom Daley, won the European Platform title. Such an event immediately brought to my mind the recent correspondence in your column about whether Gozo could benefit from the 'luxury' of having a heated indoor pool, like the National Swimming Pool in Malta or the one at Ir-Razzett tal-Ħbiberija.

Having a heated pool would definitely increase Gozitans', and in particular Gozitan pupils', interest in swimming and in swimming competitions. Such interest was evident when the Gozo College, through the PE section, organised a limited number of structured swimming sessions for children attending the primary section.

However, the bone of contention regarding this issue is financial rather than logistic. It is no secret that maintaining a heated pool throughout the year (especially during the cold winter months) entails substantial amounts of money. Closing down such a pool during the winter months is a defeatist strategy and should never be considered.

Thus, while one has to study the financial feasibility of such a project, one has to keep in mind the amount of wasted Gozitan (and Maltese) talents in the swimming disciplines.