World Championship: Dubai top priority for Zige

Dubai:  After already pulling out of November's Asian Games in Guangzhou, Olympic gold medallist Liu Zige is now sitting out the Fina Swimming World Cup event in Beijing, further fuelling speculation that the 10th Fina World Swimming Championships which takes place in Dubai in December appears to be her top priority.

The 21-year-old is the long and short course world record holder in the 200m butterfly and will be hungry for major success after missing this year's Pan-Pacific Championships in California when her coach failed to secure a visa to travel.

A relatively unknown figure prior to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Zige came into the limelight at the event after smashing fancied Australian Jessicah Schipper's world record on her way to clinching the gold in the 200m butterfly. Following her shock win over Schipper, newspapers in Australia later reported that Schipper's coach at the time, Ken Wood, sold the training programme which brought his protege so much success to Zige's Chinese coach for big money.

Zige's presence at the 25m short course event which takes place at the state of the art Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Sports Complex from December 15-19, would add further gloss to an already star-studded roster.

Swimmers who have already confirmed their attendance for Dubai include Australia's multiple Olympic medallists Geoff Huegill, Leisel Jones and Felicity Galvez, as well as Emily Seebohm, one of the stars of its Commonwealth Games team from New Delhi.

The USA team features 20 Olympians and includes Ryan Lochte, Natalie Coughlin, Aaron Peirsol and Rebecca Soni.