FINA Executive Director Cornel Marculescu believes this year’s FINA World Aquatics Convention will provide the knowledge-sharing opportunities that are required to ensure national member associations fulfil their number-one challenge – to find top-class event hosts.

The convention, which will take place in the Russian city of Moscow from October 29 to November 1, will give the aquatics industry a valuable chance to exchange ideas as the event calendar becomes increasingly packed for FINA and its 202 member associations.

“The convention is a great opportunity for national associations to get together and also encourages interaction between associations, federations and the business world,” Marculescu said.

“The majority of national associations do not have big commercial structures and receive government contributions, so attending the convention to better understand commercial and event-focused topics can really help them.

“The ultimate and ongoing number-one challenge for the associations, and for FINA, is enlargement of aquatics sport profile even further by promoting and encouraging the development of swimming throughout the world."

“I’m glad to say that we have a lot of interest in our events, as shown by the cities looking at the 25m world championships.”

Last week, FINA executive held a meeting in Lausanne (Switzerland) with representatives from the cities of Eindhoven (Netherlands), Hong Kong, Houston (United States) and Windsor (Canada), with all four cities interested in hosting the 12^th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in 2016 or the 13^th edition of the event in 2018.

Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), China, Christchurch (New Zealand) and Gold Coast (Australia) are also interested in staging the championships.

“To have such a level of interest in these events, especially at a time of difficulty in the world economy, is a really positive sign for FINA and for aquatics in general,” Marculescu added.