BUDAPEST - France's Laure Manaudou looks set to dominate this week's short course European swimming championships but home favourite Laszlo Cseh and Sweden's Stefan Nystrand are also likely to share the limelight.
France's Laure Manaudou dries her hair before the women's 200 backstroke event at the French Swimming Cup in Montpellier November 25, 2007. Laure looks set to dominate this week's short course European swimming championships. [Agencies] |
World record holder and three-times Olympic medallist Manaudou will contest five events this week in Debrecen, Hungary, including the 400 metres freestyle, in which she won Olympic gold in 2004.
Manaudou will also compete in the 200 freestyle, for which she holds the long-course world record, as well as the 50 and 100 backstroke and 100 individual medley.
The odds are against her taking gold in all five events, although after winning five medals -- including two golds -- at this year's long-course world championship, it may not be out of the question.
With less than eight months to go before the 2008 Olympics, the European championships, starting on Thursday, will play second fiddle to the Beijing Games, with a number of some big names opting to sit it out.
Hungary's Cseh, the world record holder and the European rankings leader in the 400 medley, will be among those looking to test his preparations ahead of next year.
"If I just swim what I'm capable of, that will be enough," Cseh said. "In the 400 medley, Marin Luca is the only one I need to watch out for."
Italian Luca, the defending champion in the 400 medley and the boyfriend of Manaudou, has not showed spectacular form this season but did hand Cseh one of his biggest defeats in the shorter pool when he won gold at the 2006 Europeans.
Nystrand, a short-course specialist who smashed two world records at a World Cup event in Berlin in November, will continue his quest for an Olympic medal, which eluded him in both 2000 and 2004.
The Swede will be favourite to take both the 50 and 100 freestyle events here this week.
If Nystrand's current form is anything to go by, 2007 world champion Filippo Magnini of Italy will be hard pressed to catch him.
