Get ready - the world's most prestigious swimming competition kicks-off this Saturday, April 27, in Guangzhou (CHN) with an incredible 109 star swimmers representing 28 nations confirmed.
The FINA Champions Swim Series, which includes three legs in Asia, Europe and America gathers the most recent Olympic and World medallists in swimming and many stars of the discipline have confirmed their participation in the first two-day meet to begin this upcoming weekend (from April 27-28) before the Series next stops in Budapest (HUN) from May 11-12 in and in Indianapolis (USA) from May 31-June 1.
The innovative elite swimming competition will distribute a total prize money nearing US$ 3 million. In addition, the swimmers will receive over US$ 800,000 in appearance fees and travel and accommodation expenses are fully covered by FINA.
There are 17 final races on the compact two hour-programme (14 individual races + 3 relays) per day, each of them composed of four swimmers (instead of 8) on an invite-only basis.
| DAY 1 |
DAY 2 |
| • 400m Freestyle (W) • 100m Freestyle (M) • 100m Backstroke (W) • 200m Backstroke (M) • 200m Butterfly (W) • 50m Butterfly (M) • 200m Freestyle (W) • 50m Breaststroke (M) • 100m Breaststroke (W) • 200m IM (M) • 100m Butterfly (W) • 100m Backstroke (M) • 50m Backstroke (W) • 200m Butterfly (M) • 4x100m Freestyle (Mi) |
• 400m Freestyle (M) • 50m Freestyle (W) • 100m Butterfly (M) • 50m Butterfly (W) • 200m Breaststroke (M) • 200m Backstroke (W) • 50m Freestyle (M) • 200m Breaststroke (W) • 50m Backstroke (M) • 100m Freestyle (W) • 200m Freestyle (M) • 50m Breaststroke (W) • 100m Breaststroke (M) • 200m IM (W) • 4x100m Medley (Mi) |
This weekend at the Guangdong Olympic Aquatics Centre of Guangzhou, the men's 50m race will be highlighted by the participation of reigning Olympic champion Anthony Ervin (USA), while Rio 2016 silver medallist Pieter Timmers (BEL) is the man to beat in the 100m free. Russia's Swimming World Cup champion Vladimir Morozov also takes part in both races.
Gabriele Detti (ITA) is the most promising talent for the 400m free, as Russian Kliment Kolesnikov and China’s Xu Jiayu are strong competitors in the backstroke races.
Brazilians Joao Gomes Junior and Felipe Lima highlight the 50m breast while 2016 Olympic champion Dmitry Balandin (KAZ) and 2017 World gold medallist Anton Chupkov (RUS) will have an epic fight in the 200m breast.
2017 World Championships' best three swimmers: Ben Proud (GBR), Nicholas Santos (BRA) and Andriy Govorov (UKR) – will meet again in the 50m fly, while Chad Le Clos (RSA) will be the protagonist in the 100m fly.
Chinese sensations Li Zuhao and Wang Zhou are serious contenders in the 200m fly, while their teammate Wang Shun will probably steal the show in the 200m IM.
Other top swimmers in Guangzhou include Danas Rapsys (LTU), Mykhailo Romanchuk (UKR), Ryosuke Irie and Ippei Watanabe (JPN), Robert Glinta (ROU), and Michael Andrew (USA).
In the women’s field, Olympic champion Pernille Blume of Denmark, World champion Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) and Ranomi Kromowidjojo (NED) will certainly set the pace in the 50m free, while the Swedish swimming sensation and Cate Campbell (AUS) will be forces to be reckoned with in the 100m free.
2017 World champion Katinka Hosszu of Hungary will be in action in the 200m free and Li Bingjie (CHN) will swim for gold in the 400m free.
In the 50m back, an interesting duel will take place between Australia's Emily Seebohm and the Chinese aces Fu Yuanhui and Liu Xiang.
In the 100m and 200m back, Katinka Hosszu (HUN) will be the woman to watch, while the American swimmers Kelsi Worrell Dahlia and Dana Vollmer take part in the butterfly events with strong chances for a gold medal.
Seoyeong Kim (KOR) will have the difficult task of swimming faster than Olympic and World champion Hosszu in the 200m IM.
Georgia Davies (GBR) and Wang Jianjiahe (CHN) will also be on the starting block of the women's competition.
The START LISTS of each race are available here
FINA Champions Swim Series 2019 [VIDEO]
All three meets of the Champions Swim Series are qualifying events for both the FINA World Championships Gwangju 2019 and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.