Portugal will be represented by two swimmers in the pure swimming of the World Cups, which start on Friday, in Budapest, a “surprising” competition on the calendar, and in which they will try minimums for the Europeans, scheduled for August, in Rome.
We were a little surprised with this competition on the calendar, but that did not change the strategy we had defined, according to which the main pure swimming event this year would be the Europeans”, said the sports director of the Portuguese Swimming Federation. (FPN), José Machado, to the Lusa agency.
Olympic athletes José Paulo Lopes and Diana Durães are the two Portuguese representatives in pure swimming at the World Championships in Budapest, which were only announced by the International Swimming Federation (FINA) last February, after two postponements of the competition of 2021, scheduled for Fukuoka, and now scheduled for 2023.
According to José Machado, after the announcement of the World Cups in Budapest, which were not planned, the FPN gave the option to participate in the competition to minimal swimmers and coaches.
“In pure swimming we will not be at full strength, because both the FPN and the coaches considered that it would be difficult for the swimmers to present themselves in ideal form. We consider it more sensible, because it was already defined, to bet on the Europeans”, said José Machado.
The sports director said that the swimmer José Paulo Lopes immediately expressed his interest in participating, and that Diana Durães also did so, after the postponement of the Universiade, which was to be held in Chendgu, China, from 2022 to 2023.
José Machado explained that the two swimmers achieved minimums for the World Cup at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, held in 2021and that they will be able to search for brands in Budapest to guarantee their presence in the European markets.
The sports director of the FPN admits that the World Cups will have a “high competitive level”, despite being placed on the calendar at the last minute, without Russian and Belarusian swimmers -prevented from participating by the military invasion of Ukraine- , and being less than two months away from the Commonwealth Games, and the continental championships.
For the Europeans, which José Machado defines as “a competition in which it is easier to reach the final than in the World Cup, and eventually to the podium”, Portugal has 10 swimmers with minimum qualifications, among the newcomers Diogo Ribeiro and Camila Rebelo.
The 19th edition of the World Cups is scheduled for the summer of 2021, which includes, in addition to distances in the pool, open water competitions, jumps into the water, artistic swimming and water polo, has been rescheduled for May 2022given the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics for one year.
However, last February, FINA again postponed the competition to July 2023, invoking new waves of Covid-19 cases.
The further postponement of the competition, which takes place every two years, forced FINA to “postpone” the World Cups scheduled for 2023 in Doha to January 2024, which, if it happens, would place the competition in an Olympic year for first time. .
Source: Observadora
