Australian Butterfly Stars to set pool alight
Singapore’s swimming ace Tao Li will again find herself swimming against two of the current top Butterfly swimmers, Libby Trickett and Jessica Schipper at the FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup 2009 on 21 and 22 November 2009 at the Singapore Sports School.
The 19-year-old proved herself a force to be reckoned with when she finished fifth (57.99 seconds) in the Women’s 100m Butterfly Finals at the Beijing Olympics 2008. Libby Trickett took the gold medal at 56.73 seconds and Jessicah Schipper finished in third place with 57.25 seconds. Trickett was nothing short of praise for Tao Li and said then that the Singaporean was a talent to watch out for.
The swimmers will relish the chance to meet again more than one year from the Beijing Olympics with Trickett and Schipper coming to Singapore as part of Australia’s contingent. Joining the girls in the pool in the Butterfly events are fellow Australians and record holders, Felicity Galvez and Marieke Guehrer. Galvez is the Short Course FINA World Championships record holder for the 50m and 100m with times of 23.32 and 55.89 seconds respectively while Guehrer is the Short Course FINA world record holder for the 50m Butterfly with a time of 24.99 seconds.
Other than the girls, spectators can also look out for other star swimmers from Australia such as Geoffrey Andrew Huegill, who was a previous world record holder in the 50m Butterfly. Breaststroke specialist and a regular on the FINA Swimming World Cup circuit, Christian Sprenger, will also be in town for the event.
Chairman of the Organising Committee of the FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup, Mr Ang Peng Wee, expressed his excitement over the strength of the Australian swimmers who will be competing in Singapore, “With such a strong and talented team from Australia, I am certain that the Singapore leg would be a really competitive and thrilling tournament for the spectators. The Butterfly events for the women looks to have one of the strongest fields and it will be interesting to see if the current timings hold as the swimmers push one another to do their best times possible. Our local swimmers will also get to benefit by swimming and learning from some the best in preparation for the Southeast-Asia Games in December.”
FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup is an international series of swimming meets, and will begin in October in Durban, South Africa, before making stops in Moscow of Russia, Stockholm of Sweden, Berlin of Germany and finally, Singapore. The prize money for the overall winners will also be presented in Singapore.
The FINA/Arena Swimming World Cup will be held at the Singapore Sports School from the 21st to 22nd November. Heats will be held at 9:30am on both days. Schedule for the finals are to be confirmed and will be announced on the website at a later date. Tickets are available at www.finaworldcup.com.sg or call 6258 1011 for more information.
Full Australian femal squad list
Female Athletes
