体坛英语新闻：World championships comes to an end

BARCELONA, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The 15th FINA World Championships came to an end here on Sunday after setting a record of participation and expecting to receive a return of 125 million euros (165 U.S. million dollars) after 17 days of competitions.

Barcelona held the first time a swimming world championships in 2003 when, according to figures provided by Turisme de Barcelona (Tourism of Barcelona), the city had a return of 21.8 million euros thanks to the event.

Barcelona made good use of facilities built for 1992 Olympic Games, only needing an initial investment of 25 million euros to adapt them and organize other activities.

All competitions took place in the so-called Olympic Ring of the Mountain called Montjuic, the same place where the Olympic Games of 1992 took place.

A provisional swimming pool was built inside the Palau Sant Jordi (as it was in 2003) to host synchronized swimming and swimming competitions.

Meanwhile, the water polo tournament, which in 2003 was held at the Club de Natacio de Barcelona (far from Montjuic), took place at Piscines Bernat Picornell (in Montjuic).

The Port of Barcelona (Moll de la Fusta) hosted open water swimming. Competitors had to swim inside the port, which is very close to the famous street of Las Ramblas, bringing the competition closer to the citizens and the city center.

Moll de la Fusta also hosted the first high diving competition of the FINA World Championships. A provisional tower of 27 meters of height was built and citizens could enjoy the whole competition from the promenade of the port.

Meanwhile diving was held at the Piscina Municipal of Montjuic, where spectators could gaze down the whole city of Barcelona.

Outside the Palau Sant Jordi, the Planet Water Village covered around 20,000 square meters where people could enjoy restaurants, shops, workshops and concerts. The village was expected to receive a total of 300,000 visitors during those 17 days of competition.

Sergio Galiano, from the official merchandising of the Barcelona worlds, told Xinhua that sales were going better than expected in the village, while explaining that they had especially increased when swimming competition started.

The "star" of the sales is the world championships mascot, called "Xop", a soft toy that is being given to the medalists on the podium.

According to Galiano, good sales are related to the fact that Barcelona broke a record in participation as a total of 2,293 athletes from 181 different countries and regions took part in the competitions, who along with other staff are around 3,000 people.

A total of 1,144 swimmers took part in swimming, 416 in water polo, 308 in synchronized swimming. There were 231 divers, 173 open water swimmers and 21 high divers.