Qatar all set to host FINA/airweave Swimming World Cup
DOHA, October 04, 2017 - With the FINA/airweave Swimming World Cup 2017 Doha (QAT) coming to town for the fourth leg of the eight-world cities combine championship, there's a buzz among the competitors and fans alike.
The FINA World Cup has already travelled to Moscow, Berlin, Eindhoven and Hong Kong before Doha, and will head to Beijing, Tokyo, Singapore hereon.
The competition has already heated up and the second of three FINA World Cup clusters will see some of the best in the world compete at the Hamad Aquatic Centre in Doha on Wednesday and Thursday.
There's more on offer in terms of prize-money too now with FINA announcing more money to be distributed among the best swimmers both in the overall rankings and the specific cluster rankings at the World Cup.
Essentially, now the three best ranked men and women will receive US $150,000, $100,000 and $50,000 for a total of $600,000.
Until now, male and female winners at the World Cup would get $100,000 and the second-placed athletes $50,000, and third best overall swimmers $30,000.
Another change implemented since the last stop at Hong Kong is the criteria for a 'finals free pass' given to past medalists in each event.
Cluster #1 saw gold, silver and bronze medalists from both the 2016 Olympic Games and the 2016 Short Course World Championships head straight to finals.
This weekend, however, only gold medalists from Rio and gold and silver medalists from Windsor will get to jump straight to finals.
Also, due to the fact that there are only 2 stops during this cluster, swimmers are eligible to race in 6 individual events as opposed to the usual 4 for each meet.
Most of the high-profile athletes who took to the pool in Hong Kong are also present in Doha, including South African Chad le Clos, who is leading the men's cluster, and Olympic star Katinka Hosszu of Hungary and Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom (heading the women's cluster).
Speaking at the pre-event meet, Chad said he was glad to be back what he considers his second home."I'm happy to be back. I was here before the Olympics last year and it's always nice here. It's definitely one of the best if not the best venues here for swimming. It's always great coming back here. Also, Aspetar (sports hospital) and the Aspire Zone have also helped me over the years. I have trained hard here and obviously look for more better results," said the men's 50, 100 and 200m freestyle champion.
On her part, Sarah, who was here last in 2013, said,"It's good to be back in Doha. I have had a really good season so far. It is the first time that I am doing the whole leg of the World Cup. Hong Kong was better than expected for me, so now looking forward to racing well in Doha as well."
The six-feet high swimmer will be seen in action in the women's 50, 100, 200m freestyle; 50, 100m butterfly & 100m IM events.
Russian Kirill Prigoda, who is participating in the men's 50m and 100m breaststroke, was delighted to be in this part of the world. "It's a good time to be here. I'm enjoying myself. This is like a training process to start here, the venue, hotels everything is so nice. The conditions are excellent."
The event brings 153 swimmers in all. And there's a big presence of Qatari swimmers too. Among those from Qatar who participated in the previous legs of the events are Abdullah Abu Ghazallah (Moscow, August 02-03); Abdulrahman Hesham & Abdulaziz al Obaidli (Berlin Aug 06-07); Abdulaziz Hassan, Abdulrahman Hesham & Feras al Saidi (Eindhoven Aug 11-12); and Yaqoub al Khelaifi & Yousef Hesham (Hong Kong Sept 30-Oct 1).
Event a big help for Qatar swimmers: QSA President
Khaleel al Jabir, President of Qatar Swimming Association and President of the Supreme Organising Committee for FINA/airweave Swimming World Cup 2017, speaking about the Qatari swimmers' participation said, "It is very important for us to host such events. Not only for the experience of organisation but also for our athletes to learn from these top swimmers. It's a way to imbibe from them. How they train, how they start, how they behave is something our swimmers are learning in their quest to make it to the top."
As for the competition proper, the race to win cluster #2 is down to the wire between rivals Le Clos and Tom Shields of the US. Both earned 75 points apiece in Hong Kong, with Shields getting the gold over Le Clos in the 200m butterfly event. Shields also earned 3 silvers and 2 bronze, while Le Clos gobbled up 3 golds and 3 silvers. Both men are entered in 6 events each in Doha.
Among the women, Sjostrom comfortably leads the overall World Cup points while Hosszu is doing her best to close-in on her fellow world record holder.
Completing a perfect 6-for-6 sweep of individual events in Hong Kong, Hosszu collected on a $9,000 payday and is eager to ultimately take home the $50,000 cluster bonus.
Some big splashing is indeed in store at the Hamad Aquatic Center come Wednesday!
Share this News
Google
Apple
Facebook