The St George Swim Club is petitioning Bayside Council to reopen the Angelo Anestis Aquatic Centre (AAAC) at Bexley to allow its young swimmers to recommence training.
The AAAC is owned by Bayside Council and operated by BlueFit but neither had given the club any indication of when the pool would reopen until Tuesday morning.
“At this stage, BlueFit has chosen to open the Gymnasium under strict conditions and keep the pools closed until 1 July 2020, at which time this arrangement will be reviewed in accordance with Public Health Order requirements,” Scott Field, Manager for Sports and Recreation at Bayside Council, wrote in the statement.
The Greek Herald can confirm though from our sources that the Aquatic Centre remains closed today, one day after the scheduled reopening.
“As community sport and other public pools across Sydney and Australia are opening, Bexley’s pool remains shut and not accessible to the St George Swim Club, or other community groups and the general public,” a St George Swim Club spokesperson said in an official statement.
“We are very disappointed at the lack of interest nor support from the council who have not been keen to encourage the opening of the pool for our squads, as well as the general community and learn to swim program.”
The club has 120 swimmers and an estimated 300 people taking part in its swim squads at the pool. There are fears that their young swimmers are missing out on training to be able to compete in regional competitions next year.
“These children have worked extremely hard to compete and represent their club in local, metro, state and national competitions,” the club secretary, Karen Esposito, told the St George and Sutherland Shire Leader.
“It has been a big interruption to their training and fitness to have this facility closed, which is necessary under COVID-19 restrictions.”
One of the club’s senior swimmers, Lauren, 17, also told the Leader: “It’s a mental and physical challenge for us now the pool is closed. It’s been very hard not to be together as a team to try and achieve our goals.”
The petition to Bayside Council to reopen Angelo Anestis Aquatic Centre, Bexley, can be found here: http://chng.it/kJ4qCjR5Wh.
