BEIJING, April 6 -- Top Chinese swimmers will take part in the FINA Champions Swim Series, a 3-leg competition held in 50-meter pool between April and May.
According to the FINA website, Sun Yang, Xu Jiayu and Fu Yuanhui are among the swimmers invited by FINA to take part in the event.
Sun Yang is the absolute protagonist and will shine in men's 200m freestyle and men's 400m freestyle in each of the three legs, with six races in total. Former world champions Xu Jiayu and Fu Yuanhu will also compete in the backstroke races, men's 100m backstroke, men's 200m backstroke, women's 50m backstroke and women's 100m backstroke respectively.
The FINA Champions Swim Series is a brand new event that invites the top swimmers around the world and distributes almost US$ 3 million in prize money. It features a unique competition format where only finals will be held, with four swimmers per final. Each of the legs will have 14 individual races.
The first stop of the competition will take place in Guangzhou, China from April 27 to 28. Hungary's capital Budapest, which hosted last year's FINA world championships, will stage the second leg competitions on May 11-12. Indianapolis of the United States will round off the series from May 31 to June 1.
Other Chinese top swimmers will also participate in the Guangzhou stop. In men's races, Wang Shun will be a strong competitor in 200m freestyle and 200m individual medlay, Li Guangyuan in 200m backstroke, Qiu Haiyang in 200m breaststroke and 200m individual medlay, Li Zhuhao in 100m butterfly and 200m butterfly, Wang Zhou in 200m butterfly and Wang Yizhe in 200m individual medlay.
In women's races, Li Bingjie will swim for gold in 200m freestyle and 400m freestyle, Wang Jianjiahe in 200m freestyle and 400m freestyle, Zhang Yuhan in 400m freestyle, Liu Xiang in 50m backstroke, Peng Xuwei in 200m backstroke, Liu Yaxin in 200m backstroke, Shi Jinglin in 50m breaststroke, 100m breaststroke and 200m breaststroke, Feng Junyang in 50m breaststroke, Yu Jingyao in 100m breaststroke and 200m breaststroke, He Yun in 200m breaststroke, Zhang Yufei in 200m butterfly, Zhou Min in 200m individual medlay and Zhang Sishi in 200m individual medlay.
Sun Yang will have epic fight with America's Townley Haas, Italia's Gabriele Detti and Lithuania's Danas Rapsys in the upcoming races. Xu Jiayu will be closely challenged by America's Ryan Murphy in Indianapolis stop. He will also meet serious contenders Russia's Kliment Kolesnikov and Evgeny Rylov and Ukraine's Andriy Govorov in the races.
The Series will be a qualifying competition for the 2019 FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea and the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.