A question-mark has been placed over the 2010 World Lifesaving Championships by the Australian hired to organise them in Newquay, which was part of Coe's Falmouth and Camborne constituency when he was a Conservative MP there between 1992 and 1997.

 

Coe was among those to praise organisers for winning the event when they were awarded it in October 2007.

 

But now Craig Williams has stirred speculation that the event will be moved from the Cornish resort after giving an interview to an Australian newspaper in which he claimed the lack of an Olympic-sized 50 metres swimming pool was causing the local organisers a major headache.

 

They had been due to hire one from the Olympic Delivery Authority but it is unclear who will pay the bill for it to be installed and the idea is increasingly looking likely to be abandoned.

 

Williams told the Gold Coast Bulletin: "There are only 15 Olympic-sized pools in the whole of the UK - we have more than that on the Gold Coast."

 

He speculated that the swimming pool events might need to be held at the arena built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, 325 miles north of Newquay.

 

Rescue 2010, as the event is known, is little known here but is estimated to be worth up to £20 million to the Cornish economy.

 

The event, which is even bigger in competitor numbers than the Commonwealth Games, is expected to attract more than 6,000 competitors and officials from the life saving clubs of 55 nations to Newquay, the surfing capital of Britain.

 

It is due to take place for two weeks in June and July in 2010.

 

The opening ceremony will take place at the Eden Project in St Austell.

 

Along with an audience of over 40,000 and several million through TV and radio it is hoped that this event will promote the town of Newquay world-wide and bring great economic benefit to the town.

 

The history of international life saving activities date back to 1878 when the first World Congress was hosted in Marseille.

 

Embarassingly for organisers, the strength of Britain's bid when they were awarded the event, was that both the pool and beach events were planned for the same location, within 500 metres of each other, which meant that the athletes would not have to travel between events and the two week programme can be more efficiently co-ordinated.

 

But organising body, Surf Life Saving GB, is now looking for an alternative venue because it cannot secure an Olympic-sized pool for the Fistral site.

 

The plan was to have a temporary 50m pool placed on the car park at Fistral Beach for pool events at the games

 

Adam Wooler, the acting chief executive officer of Surf Life Saving Great Britain, said that a final decision on whether Newquay hosted the event would be made by the end of this month.

 

He said: "There is a commitment to hold the beach events in Cornwall as planned but we are working with International Lifesaving Federation (ILS) to see if a solution can be found to locating the pool events elsewhere.

 

"We will know the outcome of our deliberations by the end of January and will issue a press statement then."