MEXICO CITY, July 15 -- Mexicans on Friday hailed their third largest city of Guadalajara for getting the right to host the 2017 World Championships in Swimming.
"We will have a world championship in 2017 in which 2,500 elite athletes in five Olympic disciplines from about 200 countries and regions will participate. That is an unprecedented and historic event," said Kiril Todorov, the president of the Mexican Swimming Federation.
"Mexico has always been a great center for sports events and this has opened the doors for us to once again," Mexico's Sports Minister Bernardo de la Garza said in the statement, adding, "this is great news to our country."
Guadalajara, which will host the 2011 Pan American games in October this year, had competed with China's Hong Kong for the 2017 championship.