On the eve of the first stop of the 2011 FINA/Arena World Cup, we now have psych sheets for the first stop in Dubai, UAE. I, for one, was shocked by the number of top-level athletes who will be participating in the Dubai meet of the series, as the World Cup usually gets off to a bit of a slow start. The difference could be that this year, the series kicks off in a country much closer to the pending three-meet European stand (as compared to Brazil). Still, many of the biggest swimming nations won’t have any entries. The United States will be noticeably absent in Dubai (SwimMAC’s Nelson Westby will be an exception in the breaststrokes), and Australia flew straight to Stockholm to prepare for the second meet in the series.
Some events will be swum as timed finals do to only a few entries, but though the swimmers are few in number, they’re high in quality. Let’s check out 5 storylines for the meet:
1. Fireworks in the 50 – The women’s 50 free is probably the race to watch in Dubai. The Dutch women have the best sprint free program in the world, and the two best in the 50, Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Marleen Veldhuis will both be in Dubai. The two will swim-off as the top two seeds in the 50 free, 100 free, and 100 fly; and Kromowidjojo will also take on the 50 back. But that 50 free will be the highlight. Add in Germany’s Dorothea Brandt, and you have three of the top nine in the World from the long course season. The big underdog in the race is Sweden’s Louise Hansson, who at only 15 comes in with the 6th-seed.
2 National Hero – The man who is leading the charge in UAE swimming (which they have sunk a ton of money into promoting) is 29-year old Obaid al-Jasmi. In fact, the UAE swim team is made up of him and his three brothers – Saeed, Bakheet, and Faisal – and the four made up their nation’s entire 400 free relay at the short course World Championships last December in this same Dubai pool. Three of them will be swimming at this meet, but Obaid will be the busiest. He is entered in the 100 and 200 IMs, 50 and 100 flys, 50 and 100 frees, and 50 breaststroke. That makes for quite a busy meet.
3. Local Legend – Though al-Jasmin may be the best swimmer representing the UAE, the best swimmer living in the country has to be Velimir Stjepanovic. Stjepanovic was born in Dubai to Serbian parents, and he has chosen to represent Serbia internationally. This past summer, he took two wins at the European Junior Championships, and at the World Championships, the 18-year old (who was only 17 at the time) broke the Serbian National Record in the 200 fly in 1:57.40, . In that race at this World Cup, he will face off against South Africa’s Chad le Clos, who is one of the other superstar young 200 butterfliers in the world. In between the two by seed will be Austria’s Dinko Jukic who, just a few years ago, was in the same position as these two swimmers are now. This will be a great battle featuring a lot of youth going after a very tough early-season race.
4. Petra Granlund – Every winter, the swimming world is re-introduced to a group of swimmers who are likely never going to win Olympic medals, but in the world of short course swimming they are superstars. Everybody has their favorite course, but one of the awesome parts about short course races, like those of this FINA World Cup, is the excitement of the walls. At every turn, the order going into the wall is not necessarily anywhere near that coming out of it, and this makes for a great game of cat-and-mouse. Sweden’s Petra Granlund is one of these stars. At the Dubai Short Course World Championships, she took bronze in the 200 fly, and is also a great 200 freestyler. In the 200 free, she’ll have a great battle with China’s Shija Wang, who at only 18 is one piece of the scary-young elite Chinese freestyle group.
5. German Breaststrokers – The German men have two great men’s breaststrokers who will be swimming in this meet: the veteran Hendrik Feldwehr and the young Marco Koch. And how about Dave Salo. Even when you don’t recognize it, he’s still got a breaststroker in some race somewhere in the world. In this case, it’s Azad Al-barazi, a former Hawaii swimmer who is now training at Trojan. He was born in Morocco and raised in California, but internationally he represents Syria. Syria has been devastated by civil war for several months, with almost 3,000 killed, and this will be an opportunity for him to show a positive side of the Syrian people.
