Nearly Half-A-Million Dollars on the Line in Doha, Qatar World Cup Stop

FINA has released the start lists for the first day of the 2013 World Cup Series stop in Doha, Qatar, and with hundreds-of-thousands of dollars on the line (both in race prizes, and the overall 2nd cluster prize) the competition could be heated.

Remember that $153,000 will be divided among the 6 men, and another $153,000 among the 6 women, who score the most points between the Moscow, Dubai, and Doha sites by the following breakdown:

• 1st – $50,000
• 2nd – $35,000
• 3rd – $30,000
• 4th – $20,000
• 5th – $10,000
• 6th – $8,000

That’s in addition to the standard $1,500/$1,000/$500 for the top three in each event.

As of now, the cluster standings are as below (note that this is different from overall series standings, which has a whole other chunk of cash to award).

Men (Note: we’re assuming that FINA will correct the rankings points in Dubai below)

Women

We’re fairly certain that Katinka Hosszu and Chad le Clos will take the big cluster-wide, $50,000 mega-prises at this point, but everything else is still very much up-in-the-air. That includes swimmers like Ruta Meilutyte, who didn’t even swim in Dubai, but could still get a big check for one meet’s work.

The day 1 start lists above, in one PDF, makes it much easier to parse through event schedules, but among the ones that most are watching will be Katinka Hosszu. She’ll have another mammoth schedule, swimming on the first day in 6 events: 100 fly, 50 back, 200 IM, 200 back, 800 free, and the 200 free.

Chad le Clos will swim the 200 fly, 50 fly, and the 400 IM, while American Tom Shields will focus on the sprints, taking on the 50 fly and the 100 back, as he awaits another big battle with the World Champion in the 100 on Monday’s second day of this meet.

Anthony Ervin will join Shields again as the only two Americans at this meet: Ervin will swim the 100 free on the first day.

Also at the meet will be Australian Bobby Hurley, who in a year training in the United States has solidified him self as an exemplary World Cup style swimmer. That is, he’s shown the ability to swim a big range of events very well, from sprint backstrokes to distance freestyles.