Dubai: With entries still coming in, organisers have announced that an impressive line-up of champions will compete in the second round of the Fina/Mastbank Swimming World Cup in Dubai later this month.
The Dubai leg, which will take place on August 31 and September 1 at the Hamdan Sports Complex, will be the second round of the seven-leg World Cup series, commencing in Doha on August 27-28. After Dubai, the competition will move on to to Hong Kong, Moscow, Beijing and Tokyo before the final leg in Singapore on November 1-2.
Along with current World Cup champions Chad Le Clos of South Africa and Katinka Hosszu of Hungary, the entry list features multiple world and Olympic champions and world record holders, including Spain’s Mireia Belmonte, Hungary’s Daniel Gyurta, Robert Hurley of Australia and Daryna Zevina of Ukraine.
Hosszu made last year’s Swimming World Cup her own, setting six world records, winning 32 events and the overall title by an almost unbelievable 537 points. One of her toughest competitors was Spain’s Mireia Belmonte, who will be back to challenge her again this year.
Belmonte, like Chad Le Clos, first made her mark internationally in Dubai at the 10th Fina World Championships (25m) in 2010. Belmonte won three gold and one silver at that event, and the title of female swimmer of the meet. She then went on to take two silver medals at the 2012 Olympic Games and two silvers and a bronze in the 2013 World Championships. Belmonte dominated the 400m and 800m events in last year’s World Cup, setting new world records in both distances, and finished third overall behind Hosszu and Alia Atkinson.
Jamaica’s Atkinson is an experienced campaigner, having competed in three Olympics with her best result at the Games being a fourth place finish in the 100m breaststroke in 2012. She then won two silvers in the 50m and 100m breaststroke at the 2013 World Championships, before stamping her authority on the breaststroke events in the World Cup last year, winning the 50m five times and the 100m six times, to finish second overall on the rankings. Atkinson was favourite for gold at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow but was pipped by Australia’s Leiston Pickett in the 50m breaststroke and had to settle for silver, before taking bronze in the 100m breaststroke.
Atkinson will face strong competition from Australia’s Marieke D’Cruz, the former world record holder in the 50m butterfly and 50m breaststroke. D’Cruz won the overall Swimming World Cup title in 2008 (as Marieke Guehrer) and is a short course specialist, having won two silvers in the 2012 short course world championships.
The Australian contingent will also feature the current short course 50m backstroke world champion Robert Hurley, who won a total of ten gold in the 50m and 100m backstroke and 200m and 400m freestyle events in last year’s World Cup, finishing third overall in the points behind Chad Le Clos and Russia’s sprint king Vladimir Morozov.
Hurley will be joined by former overall world cup winner Kenneth To, who won the overall Swimming World Cup title in 2012, and finished in overall fifth position last year with strong performances in the 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 100m individual medley.
Hungarian superstar Hosszu will also be joined by her teammate Daniel Gyurta, who is expected to again be unstoppable in the 200m breaststroke. Gyurta currently holds the titles of short course world champion, long course world champion and Olympic champion in event, as well as the short course world record, having broken it three times during last year’s world cup events. He was unbeaten in the five world cup events he contested in 2013.
“We are delighted with the quality of the entries we have received for this World Cup. The competition will again be very tough and we are looking forward to another wonderful competition,” noted Ahmad Al Falasi, President, UAE Swimming Association.
“This is the fourth time Dubai has hosted a leg of the prestigious Swimming World Cup, and the Hamdan Complex will come alive at the end of the month. We have been privileged to watch the best in the world in action in previous years, and we encourage sports fans to witness what promised to be another exciting competition,” said Dr Ahmad Sa’ad Al Sharif, General Secretary, Dubai Sports Council.
The Swimming World Cup is contested in a 25m pool and sees both men and women vying for prize money in each of the 36 events. The overall men’s and women’s series winner also receives $100,000 (Dh365,000).
