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  Channelnews Asia 1 Jun 06
More international watersports events at Marina Bay when IR is completed
 By Pearl Forss, Channel NewsAsia

SINGAPORE: Las Vegas Sands has won the Marina Bay integrated resort bid and among it's plans - spending millions of dollars on water activities in the area to make it a premier place for water sports in the world.

At the same time, organisers of the Singapore WaterFest have given themselves 5 years to grow the event at Marina Bay into an international attraction.

Wakeboarding, sailing, windsurfing are just some of the activities Singaporeans and tourists can try out once the Marina Barrage is completed in 2007.

With the Integrated Resort to be ready in 2009, watersports enthusiasts feel it will be an even greater boost to watersports in Singapore.

"It's a good starting point where we can stage a good number of water related sports on this water body itself. With local participation and with the kind of international activities that we can bring to bear, I'm sure it will attract a lot of tourism," said Low Teo Ping, Chairman of the Water Sports Working Group, Singapore Sports Council.

Las Vegas Sands told Channel NewsAsia it intends to spend millions of dollars on water activities to draw international tourists.

"We have already begun the process of discussing with government what their programmes are, we will participate in those programmes in terms of how our facilities integrate with it, and then we'll look for gaps in those programmes where we'll sponsor things ourselves," said William P Weidner, President and COO of Las Vegas Sands.

Some of the international water sports events that Singapore currently hosts include the F1 Powerboat Race, the Wakebord World Cup and the World Water Ski Championships. With the IR, the Singapore Sports Council is confident of attracting even more renowned international water sports attractions such as the World Windsurfing Championships and Match Racing which will all contribute to Singapore's aim of becoming Asia's watersports hub.

The Water Sports Working Group has said plans for watersports in the Marina Barrage area could be constrained by crafts such as the Singapore Jet Boat and River Taxis.

"My hope is that they will limit commercial traffic on this water body. A lot of these commercial crafts that you have on this water are motor powered and driven by propellers, because there is a certain weight related to these crafts, they create a certain wake effect and a wake effect would then create turbulence within the water and that is not good for body powered sporting activities," added Mr Low.

The Water Sports Working Group also said they plan to grow the annual WaterFest, which started in 2005, into an international sports event.
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