Katinka Hosszu
Three-time Olympic and seven-time world champion Katinka Hosszu and South African superstar Chad Le Clos are set to headline the FINA/Airweave Swimming World Cup (25m) Doha edition to be held next month at the Hamad Aquatics Complex.
Top swimmers from around the world have confirmed their participation in the event, which will be hosted by Qatar for the fifth consecutive year. The event will run from October 4 to 5.
Doha round is the fifth of total eighth rounds of FINA/Airweave Swimming World Cup Series hosted across the world. Moscow staged the first round (August 2 to 3), Berlin organised the second round (August 6 to 7) and Eindhoven hosted the third round (August 11 to 12).
Hong Kong is due to host the fourth round ( September 30 to October 1) before the Doha spectacle. Beijing will organise the sixth round (November 10 and 11) while Tokyo will bring together top world simmers to the seventh round ( November 14-15). The final leg will be held in Singapore from November 18 to 19.
Hungary’s Hosszu, known as ‘The Iron Lady’ will spice up the women’s contests and will be looking to improve his tally of medals in Doha, which has been one of her favourite venues. The Hungarian stole the show in last year’s edition winning 13 medals including 9 gold and 4 silver medals.
Fans in Doha will also be itching to see Le Clos in action, who famously dethroned Michael Phelps in 2012 London Olympics. The South African will also come back to Doha with a lot of memories. Last year, the former Olympic champion claimed three gold medals and clinched four gold medals in the 2015 edition.
The President of Qatar Swimming Association (QSA) Khaleel A Jaber said Doha was ready to host another major swimming competition successfully, saying getting the FINA event for the sixth consecutive year was proving Qatar’s high organisational abilities in hosting top international events.
“QSA appreciates FINA’s confidence in Doha for selecting it for major competitions – FINA World Series since 2012, as well as staging the 12th FINA World Swimming Championships (25) in Doha in 2012,” he said.
“But the biggest challenge remains ahead when Doha will host the 2023 FINA World Aquatics Championships and FINA World Masters Championships. We are keen to host an exceptional FINA event here in Doha, the capital of world sports which had prominent record in hosting many world championships and sport events over the past years,” he added.
FINA started staging the first edition of FINA World Aquatics Championships Belgrade in 1973. The event becoming one of the most important championships hosted by FINA .
The first championship was organised under the name “FINA World Cup ” at the Yoyogi
Olympic pool in the Japanese capital, Tokyo in 1979 and had brought together eight teams from across the world including United States of America, Canada, Sweden, Soviet Union, Japan (participated with its all official national teams) also other teams representing Australia, New Zealand, Latin America and Europe.
In January 1991, the world records had been made in the short course events (25m) were officially approved during the FINA technical conference held in Australia’s Berth city. In the same year, FINA was keen to host World Championships in short course (25m).
And from 2007, the FINA decided to provide busy table for the event in effort to attract large media coverage and brings further international attention.
