The Doha round is the fifth of total eighth rounds of Swimming World Cup Series hosted across the world. Moscow staged the first round (2-3 August), followed by Berlin (6-7 August), Eindhoven.
Hong Kong city is due to host the fourth round (September 30 to October 1), which will be followed by Doha leg. The series will then move to Beijing (10-11 November), Tokyo (14-15 November) before coming to stop in Singapore (18-19 November).
The Doha round will bring together top swimmers at the both regional and international levels. A lot of swimmers have confirmed participation for the Doha leg, including Hungarian Olympic champion Katinka Hosszu, who is a crowd puller here in Doha, having won 13 medals including nine gold and four sliver in the last year’s edition.
Also South African Chad Le Clos made his mark by clinching three gold medals in 2016 and in 2015 he claimed four gold. This year’s event will see other prominent names and Olympic medallists. Khaleel al-Jaber, the President of QSA confirmed that staging the fifth round of Swimming World Cup in Doha for the sixth consecutive year is a proof of Qatar’s high organisational abilities in hosting major international events.
“QSA is highly appreciative of FINA’s confidence on Doha by granting the city the hosting rights to stage one of FINA World Series since 2012. But the biggest challenge remains ahead when Doha host 2023 FINA World Aquatics Championships and FINA World Masters Championships,” al-Jaber said.
“We are keen to host an exceptional FINA event here in Doha, the capital of world sports which had prominent record in hosting many world championships and sport events over the past years,” he added.
FINA started staging the first edition of the FINA World Aquatics Championships in Belgrade in 1973. The event has gone to become one of the most important championships hosted by FINA.
The first championship was organised under the name ‘FINA World Cup’ at the Yoyogi Olympic pool in the Japanese capital Tokyo in 1979 and had brought together eight teams from across the world including United States of America, Canada, Sweden, Soviet Union, Japan (participated with its all official national teams) also other teams representing Australia, New Zealand, Latin America and Europe.
In January 1991, the world records had been made in the short course events (25m) were officially approved during the FINA technical conference held in Australia’s Perth city. In the same year, FINA was keen to host World Championships in short course (25m).
And from 2007, the FINA has decided to provide busy table for the event in effort to attract large media coverage and brings further international attention.
