FINA today announced its 2011 Arena World Cup Calendar that will begin on October 7th and run on a very-tight schedule through November 13th. The condensing is a wise decision, as it will help keep travel costs down for athletes wishing to attend many meets.
This year’s series will have a very heavy Euro-Asian influence, with the elimination of the Rio de Janiero stop that was very-lightly attended last year (and canceled the year before that due to lack of funding).
For Berlin, Stockholm, Moscow, and Singapore, this will be at least the 5th-consecutive year hosting a stop in this series. Berlin is the longest-running host, as this will be the 12th-straight year the meet stops there. The meet’s final two stops, in Beijing and Tokyo, each also hosted a leg last year.
The newcomer to the fold will be the series’ first meet in Dubai. Apparently FINA has forgiven the UAE Swimming Federation for several high-profile errors over the past few years that includes the death of American swimmer Fran Crippen under their supervision, them rescinding their bid for the 2013 World Championships after they had won the right to host, and a very-lightly attended Short Course World Championship meet in December that featured a near-international-incident when the Israeli team was not allowed to enter the country.
No Arab country has ever hosted a World Cup stop before.
The 2011 schedule:
- Fri 7 -Sat 8 October Dubai (UAE)
- Sat 15 – Sun 16 October Stockholm (SWE)
- Tue 18 – Wed 19 October Moscow (RUS)
- Sat 22 – Sun 23 October Berlin (GER)
- Fri 4 – Sat 5 November Singapore (SIN)
- Tue 8 – Wed 9 November Beijing (CHN)
- Sat 12 – Sun 13 November Tokyo (JPN)