FINA announced the dates and hosts and revised format of the 2018 FINA Swimming World Cup, an annual competition launched in 1979 which gathers the world’s swimming elite.
For this 30th edition, FINA designed a brand new concept which will integrate meets held in 25m-pool as well as meets in 50m-pool, with the main objective to increase the level of participation.
Normally split across seven to nine locations, the 2018 circuit is divided into three Clusters, including two legs in the first two stages and three in the final Cluster. The World Cup distributes a total of prize money reaching over US$ 2.5 million equally awarded between the genders.
A total of seven internationally renowned hosts in Europe, Middle East and Asia will be staging the 2018 World Cup in grand style. The swimming Series will get off the blocks in Kazan, Russia, on September 7-9. The capital of Tatarstan successfully hosted the 2015 edition of the 16th FINA World Championships.
The following weekend, from September 13-15, the swimmers will race in Doha, Qatar, also a fantastic host of the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in December 2014.
Both meets will be held in a 50m-pool, with a total of 32 individual events and 2 relays.
The second Cluster however will be raced in 25m-pools, with the 17th FINA World Championships organizer Budapest, Hungary, to welcome the circuit from October 4-6. A city to be confirmed yet will organize the first leg of the second Cluster prior to the Magyar capital, on September 28-30.
Finally the third and final Cluster (25m-pool) of the 2018 World Cup will take place in Asia: Beijing (November 2-4), Tokyo ( November 9-11) and Singapore (November 15-17).
Clusters #2 and #3 comprise of 34 individual events and 2 relays.
All meets will run across three days (including mandatory heats) and swimmers are allowed to swim an unlimited number of individual events, however only the best 3 results will count toward the ranking/scoring.
Last year’s top male and female finishers of the World Cup were South Africa’s Chad Le Clos and Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom.
— This information was provided as a press release from FINA.