The FINA Swimming World Cup 2019 is set to kick-off in Tokyo, Japan, the 2020 Olympic city. With the participation of about 140 athletes from 28 countries, including recently crowned World champions and Olympic and World medallists, the calendar of the 2019 Series unfolds as follows: It comprises of seven meets distributed in three clusters: in August, immediately after the conclusion of the 18th FINA World Championships in Gwangju (KOR), the world's swimming elite will first visit Tokyo (JPN, August 2-4), then Jinan, in China (August 8-10), and finally Singapore on August 15-17.

After a pause in September, the second cluster will see action in Budapest (HUN), on October 4-6, and then in Berlin (GER) on October 11-13. It is a “return” of the German capital to the circuit – since 2000, Berlin is a traditional, and successful host of a Swimming World Cup leg, having only missed the organisation of an event in 2014, 2015 and 2018.

Finally, the World Cup will come to an end in Kazan (RUS, November 1-3) and Doha (QAT - November 7-9).

Big names of the discipline to watch for in Tokyo include: Katinka Hosszu (HUN) and Federica Pellegrini (ITA) who respectively won two golds (200m IM, 400m IM) and one gold medal (200m free) in Gwangju, but also Olympic and World medallists Cameron McEvoy, Cate Campell, Mitch Larkin and Emily Seebhohm of Australia, Jeanette Ottesen (DEN), Mireia Belmonte (ESP), Swimming World Cup stars Alia Atkinson (JAM) and Vladimir Morozov (RUS) and USA's Jacob Pebley, Josh Prenot, Michael Andrew and Ryan Murphy.

For the 31st World Cup, all meets will run across three days and swimmers are allowed to enter an unlimited number of individual events, however only the best three results will count toward the ranking/scoring.All the meets will take place in a 50m-pool and will be qualifying events for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The FINA Swimming World Cup provides a total of over US$ 2.5 million in prize money to the best athletes, distributed as follows: meet prize money – US$ 1million; cluster prize money – US$ 942’000; overall prize money for series winners – US$ 600’000.

This year’s circuit is also highlighted by an important novelty: the partnership of FINA with natural mineral water supplier NongFu Spring, leader in the Chinese market. This agreement extends to the upcoming four editions of the competition, until 2022. Omega will remain the Official Timekeeper of the Series.

SWC 2019 Calendar

1. Tokyo (JPN) - August 2-4
2. Jinan (CHN) - August 8-10
3. Singapore (SGP) - August 15-17
4. Budapest (HUN) - October 4-6
5. Berlin (GER) - October 11-13
6. Kazan (RUS) - November 1-3
7. Doha (QAT) - November 7-9

You can follow the pool action LIVE on FINAtv and daily news reports are available on FINA website during competition. Results are immediately available after each race on the FINA mobile app.