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World beaters for Fina showdown

The iconic Hamdan Sports Complex off the Emirates Highway (formerly Dubai Bypass Road) will come alive on October 17 and 18 as world class swimmers will battle it out for Fina World Cup series honours.

The Dubai competition, which will take place on October 17-18, is the fourth leg of the eight-leg World Cup series, which commenced in August in Eindhoven in the Netherlands, before moving on the Berlin then Moscow. After Dubai the competition will move on to Doha, Singapore, and Tokyo, with the final event in Beijing on November 13-14.

The event will begin at 10am on Thursday October 17 with heats in the morning at 10am, and finals being contested from 5.30pm, with the same schedule on Friday October 18. Tickets to the event will be available at the door at the Hamdan Sports Complex, which is located on Emirates Road (E611). Tickets are Dh20 per day, with children under 12 free. All details, including information on the Children’s World Cup, a special event for residents here can be found on the Facebook page: FINASWC13Dubai.

The Australian team includes last year’s 2012 World Cup overall winner, Kenneth To, who along with his individual race prizemoney also pocketed a cool $100,000 last year for topping the points tally after the eight-leg event.

Kenneth’s powerful Aussie contingent include dual Olympic gold medallist and World Championship gold medallist Emily Seebohm.

Emily took 1 gold and 2 silvers at the 2012 Olympics, and 3 silvers at this year’s World Championships in 100m backstroke, medley relay and freestyle relay events. Emily will be joined by team-mate Belinda Hocking, who also took silver at the 2013 World Championships in the 200m backstroke behind US legend Missy Franklin. Both Emily and Belinda are hot favourites in their backstroke events, with Emily also posing a threat to Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu in the individual medley.Adding to the backstroke talent is Australian team is Robert Hurley who took gold in the 50m backstroke at the 2012 World Championships (25m), and Ashley Delaney who took silver in the 4 X100m medley relay in Barcelona in 2013.

Hurley and Delaney have been sharing the honours in the 50m and 100m backstroke events in the first three legs of the world cup, with Delaney winning in Eindhoven and Hurley in Berlin. Hurley again took the gold in the 100m back in Russia yesterday, with Delaney taking silver and Poland’s Radoslav Kawecki in third.

Kawecki, who won silver at the 2013 World Championships in Barcelona in the 200m backstroke, will be joined by Polish teammate and fellow Barcelona silver medallist in the 200m butterfly Pawel Korzeniowski, as well as 2013 bronze medallist in the 100m butterfly Konrad Czerniak.