World Para Swimming announce 2020 World Series dates
World Para Swimming has announced the 2020 World Series calendar. It will take place in seven cities across four continents between February to June 2020.
The UK will host the series in April 2020. The full series schedule is:
14-16 February, Melbourne, Australia
27 February – 1 March, Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy
26-28 March, São Paulo, Brazil
9-12 April, Sheffield, UK
16-18 April, Indianapolis, USA
1-3 May, Singapore
18 – 21 June, Berlin, Germany
Tracy Glassford, World Para Swimming Senior Manager, speaking about the event said:
“The 2020 World Series will be the first to take place in a Paralympic Games year, offering swimmers from all over the world the chance to plan next season in advance and to compete in high-level events in preparation for Tokyo 2020. It will also give Para swimming fans the opportunity to start following the amazing athletes they will watch competing at the Paralympics.
“The next season will also be the first in which the series return to the same countries that hosted them in the previous season. The World Series is now well established as a platform for new swimmers to come onto the international scene at the same time that it offers the world’s best athletes a more consistent competition calendar. We take this opportunity to thank all Local Organising Committees and share with them the success of the competition.”
The 2019 season saw over 1,300 swimmers from 84 countries competing. Spain’s Antoni Ponce was crowned the men’s individual winner and Great Britain’s Alice Tai took the women’s individual title.
There are currently four events for athletes with intellectual impairment (class S14) on the para programme. These are 200m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 400m freestyle, with the new event of 100m butterfly added for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games. A 4 x 100 freestyle relay mixed gender may also be added to the programme following the successful conclusion of the event in the recent London 2019 World Para Swimming Championships.
More information about the World Series can be found on the World Para Swimming website.