Contributed by Katherine Kee

Singapore, Thursday, September 15, 2011 — The China Swimming Association and the Japan Swimming Federation has today confirmed that they will each be sending a team of 10 swimmers to the Singapore leg of the FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup on November 4th to 5th this year.

Leading the charge from China is Jiao Liuyang, gold medalist and world champion of the Women’s 200m Butterfly at the recent World Swimming Championships in Shanghai. Jiao also beat Singapore’s Tao Li to the wall in the 100m Butterfly event at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou.

Bai Anqi, China’s young and upcoming swimming star will make a return to the pool at the Singapore Sports School – the site where she took the gold medals of the Woman’s 200m and 100m Backstroke events at the first Youth Olympic Games in Singapore last year. Spectators can also expect China’s Freestyle specialist, Lv Zhiwu, to make a splash at this year’s competition. Lv won the gold medal at the Men’s 50m Freestyle and the 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay at the 2010 Asian Games.

Japan, on the other hand, is also sending a team of veteran and young swimmers, including current world record holder in the Short Course 200m Backstroke, Shiho Sakai. Sakai was also the former world record holder in the Short Course 100m Backstroke.

Another short course specialist, Naoya Tomita, gold medalist in the 200m Backstroke at the FINA World Championships (25m) in Dubai, will also take to the pool in Singapore while youngsters, Kosuke Hagino (200m Individual Medley) and Kanako Watanabe (200m Backstroke), fresh from their recent victories at the FINA World Junior Championships in Lima, also join the team here in Singapore.

The FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup is an international series of swimming meets organised by FINA, the International Federation for Aquatics. The series started in 1989, and is open to swimmers from FINA member federations. This is the fifth year Singapore will be hosting this international meet and the two-day event will carry a combined prize purse of US$102,000.

The first leg of the 2011 FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup series begins on October 7th in Dubai before moving on to Stockholm (Oct 15th-16th), Moscow (Oct 18th–19th), Berlin (Oct 22nd-23rd). Singapore starts the Asian segment of the series on November 4th with Beijing next on the agenda (Nov 8th–9th) and the series concluding in Tokyo from November 12th to 13th.

The Singapore Swimming Association is expecting more entries, including swimming legend, Ian Thorpe, to be confirmed over the next few weeks. While the Singapore Swimming Association has not received Thorpe’s entry form, the news report from The Australian (August 22, 2011) has indicated that Thorpe, will be making his first appearance after an absence of five years on the competitive scene at the FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup in Singapore.

“We are extremely pleased that we will have a strong presence from Asia’s swimming powerhouses, China and Japan come November. The spectators here are used to world class swimming action every year and this year will be no different. We are looking forward to receiving more entries in the next few weeks and the competition this year will undoubtedly be one that is exciting to all swimming fans,” said Mr Ang Peng Wee, Chairman of the Organising Committee of the FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup (Singapore).

The FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup will be held at the Singapore Sports School on November 4th to 5th. Heats will be held at 9am to 11am and the finals at 5.30pm to 8pm on both days.