Swimming Australia reveal squad for the 2011 FINA/Arena World Cup Series – Swimming Update
Swimming Australia has revealed its squad for the upcoming 2011 FINA/Arena World Cup Series, which comprises of seven stops and will start tomorrow with its first stage being in Dubai, on Friday, October 7.
The Australian squad comprises of eight strong swimmer including Geoff Huegill, Eamon Sullivan, Matthew Abood, Belinda Hocking, Rachel Goh, Kenneth To, Angie Bainbridge and Sally Foster.
Australians has decided to skip their participation in the first leg of the World Cup, but they will compete in the next three consecutive stops of the series, which will take place in Stockholm, Moscow and Berlin, respectively.
Former world record holder of 50m butterfly and 2010 Commonwealth gold medallist, Huegill will try to prove his dominance in the events of 50m and 100m butterfly. Australian freestyle relay specialists, Sullivan and Abood will compete in the freestyle swims
while Hocking will show her skills in the 50m, 100m and 200m back-stroke disciplines.
In addition, Stockholm will be entertained by the participation all-eight Australian swimmers whereas, Bainbridge, Hocking and Foster will take a rest in Moscow but will join their team in Berlin.
Head Coach to Swimming Australia, Leigh Nugent said, “The World Cup series is always a great chance for athletes to refine their skills and get some good racing under the belt.”
Nugent added, “Short course swimming is all about starts, turns and underwater skills, and to be able to work on these areas against top opposition is extremely important especially for some of our younger athletes and in this case some older ones as well.”
The Australian team to Stockholm will depart on October 10, so that they could get familiar with the pool conditions. Furthermore, the Australian squad for the last three stops of Arena Series in Asia has not been decided yet, but Ian Thorpe and Libby Trickett
are confirmed for Asian legs of the championship.
Thorpe, who returned to competitive swimming after almost six years of retirement, is training hard to make a successful comeback and is focused towards impressing his fans at the Singapore leg of the World Cup, scheduled to be held from November 4-5.
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