Star-Studded Field Slated to Race in New York World Cup

NEW YORK, January 27. THE World Cup series moves to New York late next week and the field for the event is stacked. Here is the release from USA Swimming concerned the competition.

Six-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps (Baltimore, Md. / Club Wolverine) is one of 10 American and approximately 50 international Olympians scheduled to compete at the FINA World Cup Feb. 3-4, in East Meadow, N.Y. The Nassau County Aquatic Center will host more than 230 national and international stars for the World Cup competition, the fifth consecutive year the event will be in East Meadow. This short course meet is the seventh of eight stops on the 2005-06 World Cup circuit.

Phelps, who will be competing at the New York World Cup for the first time since winning five medals (two of them gold) in 2002, will swim his more traditional events, including all three individual medley distances and the 200m freestyle.

Here are a few other athletes/storylines to follow:

Kaitlin Sandeno
Sandeno (Lake Forest, Calif. / Trojan) is making her first World Cup appearance this year, entering in six events. Last year in New York, the 400m IM American record holder bagged three golds, in the 200m butterfly and the 200m and 400m IM.

Kate Ziegler
At the 2005 New York World Cup stop, Zielger (Great Falls, Va. / The Fish) broke Sippy Woodhead’s 25-year-old American record in the 800m free, which at the time was the oldest American record on the books.

The Breaststroke Showdown
The breaststroke events have the potential to be the marquee races of the meet, as five U.S. Olympians are entered. The men’s side will feature a matchup between Brendan Hansen (Havertown, Penn. / Longhorn) and Ed Moses (Burke, Va. / Curl Burke), both world record holders and both Olympic gold medalists.

Hansen owns the long course world records in the 100m and 200m breast, while Moses is the reigning short-course world record holder in the 100m and 200m distances. 2004 Olympian Scott Usher (Grand Island, Neb. / Wyoming Aquatics) should also factor into the medal race.

On the women’s side, Tara Kirk (Bremerton, Wash. / Stanford) has been stellar in January, tallying seven gold medals thus far in three stops on the World Cup circuit. However, winning in New York might not be an easy task for Kirk, as Megan Jendrick (Puyallup, Wash. / King) is looking for her first trip to the podium this year. The two are looking to renew their rivalry after each took home a win at the 2005 U.S. Open in December. Kirk won the 100m breast, while Jendrick took the title in the 200m breast.

The Battle in the Backstroke
World record holder Peter Marshall (Atlanta, Ga. / Stanford Swimming) will once again face teammate Randall Bal (Fair Oaks, Calif. / Stanford Swimming) in the backstroke events. Marshall set the world mark in the 100m back at the Nassau County Aquatic Center at the 2004 NCAA Championships. However, Bal has had the upper hand in the 2005-06 World Cup circuit, collecting nine golds to Marshall’s four.

The American Olympians Corner
Other U.S. Olympians scheduled to compete include: Margaret Hoelzer, Klete Keller, Rachel Komisarz and Neil Walker.

International World Record Holders in the Neighborhood
France’s Fred Bousquet, who competed for Auburn from 2002-05, returns to the pool where he set the world record in the 50m free at the 2004 NCAA Championships. He will be looking for his first World Cup title in that event this year. On the women’s side, 50m butterfly world record-holder Anna-Karin Kammerling (Sweden) and Olympic teammate Therese Alshammar (Sweden) are also scheduled to compete.

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