Gold medalist Katinka Hosszu (Front) of Hungary celebrates after the women's 400m medley final at the Gwangju 2019 FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, on July 28, 2019. (Xinhua/Li Gang)
Big names including Hosszu and Rapsys will feature in the Jinan leg of the FINA Swimming World Cup, one of the qualifying events for Tokyo 2020 that starts on Thursday.
JINAN, China, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The FINA Swimming World Cup will kick off on Thursday in Jinan, eastern China's Shandong province. China has sent a 29-member home squad to take part in the competition.
The 2019 World Cup is held in a 50m pool, and all of its seven legs are qualifying events for the Olympics. Jinan is the second leg of the series and runs from August 8-10.
Big names in attendance include Hungary's 'Iron Lady' Katinka Hosszu, Lithuania's Danas Rapsys and Jamaica's Alia Atkinson.
Danas Rapsys of Lithuania celebrates after winning Men's 400m Freestyle Final at 14th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, on Dec. 11, 2018.(Xinhua/Wang Lili)
Hosszu won two golds in the 200m and 400m IM in Gwangju World Championships last month and just collected three golds in Tokyo last week.
"I will participate in five or six events here in Jinan," Hosszu said. "We were just in Japan last week. I do like to get back into racing right away, and it will be hard to train now. It's really fun to travel and race and come to China to see Chinese fans."
She also said World Cup is important for her to prepare for the Olympic Games.
"I've been swimming at the World Cup for seven years. I use it a lot in my preparation and it works a lot for me. I think it is also a good thing that it's long course competition now."
Alia Atkinson of Jamaica competes during the women's 50m breaststroke final at FINA Swimming World Cup 2018 in Beijing, China, November 4, 2018. (Xinhua/Luo Yuan)
Atkinson, who won the women's 50m breast gold in Tokyo last week, will participate in three events in Jinan.
"I'm a bit tired from Gwangju and Tokyo. But with the rest in the last four days I warmed up and just want to see what I can do in Jinan. I am hoping to do more. I want a gold in 50m, and I am hoping to get on the podium for the 100m as well," the Jamaican said.
The Swimming World Cup in Jinan is composed of 34 events, 16 events per gender and two mixed relays.
