"Our country makes the list of top nations in swimming, however until recently we did not have a sufficient number of international tournaments under our belt," said Gennady Alyoshin, the head of the All-Russian Swimming Federation (VFP) and vice president of the Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA) at a press conference.
Mr. Alyoshin announced that FINA made the decision to hold the sixth meet of the World Cup Series in the Russian capital during the World Championships in Barcelona last summer. The European portion of the Cup competitions was traditionally held in Stockholm, Berlin and Paris. After the meeting in Barcelona, France was obliged to forfeit its organizational rights for the competition to Moscow.
According to World Championship silver medallist Stanislava Komarova, "the fact that Russian athletes will compete at home provides additional strength." Almost all of the leading swimmers in the world have arrived in Moscow for the tournament. More than 115 foreign athletes will participate including the famous American swimmer Ed Moses who set the world record for the 200m breast-stroke at the Berlin competition, the multiple record setting Ukrainian Yana Klochkova and Belarussian world champion Alyona Popchanka.
One hundred and fifty Russian athletes will take part in the competition.
The World Cup Series consists of eight meets that began last November in Taejong, South Korea. The final meet will take place in February in Rio de Janeiro.
