A trio of Olympians in Velimir Stjepanovic, Ivan Lender and Mohammed Madouh will put their wold-class swimming abilities on display as part of the Hamilton Aquatics’ Dubai Open.
Held at Hamdan Sports Complex, the showcase for swimming clubs in the region features more than 403 athletes across 25 teams competing over 200 races tomorrow and Saturday.
Stjepanovic headlines the field and will look to repeat on his performance at last year’s Dubai Open, when he placed first in all five of his races and top-scored for boys aged 17 and over with 2,378 total points.
The 23-year-old Serbian will line up against countryman Lender and Kuwait’s Madouh in the 50m freestyle and 100m freestyle, as well as competing in the 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 200m backstroke and 200m butterfly.
Lender and Madouh will once again go head-to-head when the 26-year-olds battle in the 50m butterfly field, with the former also competing in the 100m butterfly.
On the girls side, 17-year-old Lucy Agnew returns to defend her titles in the 200m freestyle, 200m backstroke, 400m freestyle and the 100m backstroke. She paced all girls aged 16 and over in last year’s event with five wins in her six races, including a personal best time of 1:05.64 in the 100m backstroke, to tally 2,013 points.
Three sessions will be held on each day, with the first two (starting at 08:30 and 10:45) serving as preliminaries and the final session (beginning at 17:30) consisting of finals.
Time trials in the 800 freestyle and 1500m freestyle will take place at 10:45 on Friday.
Spectators can check out all the action for Dh50 per session or Dh100 per day. Children under the age of 12 gain free admittance.
For more information, a full schedule and results, visit www. hamiltonaquatics.ae.
