A star-studded field comprising the world's top three long-distance swimmers has been lined up for the Hong Kong Fina Marathon World Cup event to be held in Repulse Bay on October 1.

The 10-kilometre race, a newly included event for the 2008 Olympic Games, offers total prize money of US$20,000 for the 43 swimmers from 16 countries who will competing in Hong Kong.

Heading the list is world number one Peter Stoychev of Bulgaria, who will face stiff challenges from Mohamed El Zanaty of Egypt and Stephane Gomez of France, the world numbers two and three respectively.

Hong Kong's Chung Kwok-leung, the highest-ranked local swimmer who finished second in an open-water event in Turkey in July, will now get the chance to compete against the world's best.

In the women's event, five of the world's top 10 will also be in the Hong Kong leg, including Maria Celeste Punet of Argentina and Stefanie Biller of Germany.

"Since there will be a 10km swimming medal at stake for the first time at the Beijing Olympics, more effort has been made to promote this sport, including expanding the World Cup series from 10 to 19 cities this year," said Ronnie Wong Man-chiu, secretary of the Hong Kong Amateur Swimming Association, adding that the Hong Kong event would be the 17th leg of the World Cup series this year. The other local representatives in the international race are Lee Siu-chung, Ho Sin-wing, Ng Chau-yu, Tang Wing-yung and Tsang Tsz-sin.

Besides the 10km event, competitions ranging from 600m to 3.5km will be held for around 400 local amateurs in different age groups, and the organisers will also have a beach carnival at the venue.
 
(South China Morning Post September 14, 2006)