The National Sports Centre’s (NSC) soon to be completed 50 metre outdoor swimming pool will host the inaugural Bermuda International Masters Swim Meet in September, The Royal Gazette can reveal.The three-day invitational swim meet will involve swimmers no younger than the age of 25 and will take place September 20-22 at the NSC’s Aquatics Centre.“We are going to host an inaugural aquatics sports event at the Aquatics Centre in September and the plan is for it to be an international masters swim meet and masters being anyone above the age of 25 to 90 who is swimming competitively but not targeting the Olympic Games,” NSC Board of Trustees chairman Sean Tucker told The Royal Gazette. “Many Masters swimmers we found are former high calibre and competitive swimmers, world champions and Olympians.”Tucker added that the upcoming swim meet is to be designed, managed and partially promoted by the NSC Board of Trustees.“It’s going to be promoted in Bermuda, the United Kingdom, United States and Canada and will involve using our own promotional forces in conjunction with the Department of Tourism and national masters swimming organisations in the targeted countries,” he said. “They’ve agreed to assist with the distribution of materials and information.”As an invitational, local swimmers that meet the criteria in order to compete will be encouraged to do so.“It’s an invitational so whoever wants to come and compete will be welcomed to,” Tucker said. “It’s still in the early stages but we are actively working on it and will be able to provide more information soon.”Tucker said the upcoming swim meet is one of the schemes the NSC’s Board of Trustees have come up with to generate revenue to offset operational costs.“Our aim is to not only raise revenue but also to raise the profile of the Aquatics Centre and the National Sports Centre as a whole,” he added.Earlier this week Minister of Community and Cultural Development Wayne Scott challenged the NSC’s Board of Trustees to derive any shortfall through “enhanced fundraising or revenue creation schemes”.The NSC’s annual Government grant has been increased for the 2013-14 fiscal year.Some $1.25 million dollars has been allocated to the NSC to cover operational expenses for the upcoming fiscal year with $955,000 of that sum to go towards the new Aquatics Centre alone.As well as September’s inaugural Bermuda International Masters Swim Meet, the NSC will also host the ICC Pepsi World Cricket League (WCL) Division Three Tournament in April/May and the NatWest Island Games in July.“All of these things cost money so the increased grant will go a long way towards helping us to prepare to host these events,” Tucker added.