BARCELONA, 12 July 2003 — Ian Thorpe will look to repeat his gold medal haul of six from 2001, but he and his Australian teammates face a formidable American challenge led by teenager Michael Phelps at the swimming world championships which start tomorrow.
Phelps made an impressive statement just two weeks ago when he raised the nine-year-old 200m medley world record to 1 minute 57.94 seconds. Thorpe has this year added the 200m medley to his program which will feature seven starts at the Palau Jordi which hosted the 1992 Olympic pool events. The two are set to met on July 25.
The two-week championships featuring some 2,300 swimmers from a record 64 countries start with the first medal events in long distance swimming and diving. The water polo players start their preliminary matches tomorrow, which also sees the start of the synchronized swimming events.
Among those registered for the 11th edition of the worlds are three athletes from Iraq, which makes its first appearance on the international sports stage since a United States-led invasion which toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein. But it is traditionally the pool swimmers who catch most of the attention at the championships.
China Takes Experience and
New Talent to Barcelona
Meanwhile, China has been grooming new talent with an eye on the 2004 Olympics and reckons they will start making waves in Barcelona at the world swimming championships. “We have more medal hopefuls in this year’s worlds, especially in swimming,” said Chinese Swimming Association director Li Hua. “Many young talents have surged from recent international competitions.”
With the nation’s drug-stained past seemingly behind, Li said they were aiming to top their tally from the last championships two years ago in Fukuoka, Japan when Chinese swimmers took home two gold, two silver and three bronze. And more focus is being put on the men, who traditionally have not performed as well as the women.
“We have more medal contenders in more swimming events,” said Li.
