The biggest Para swimming competition before the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games is set to start on Sunday (16 May) in Madeira, Portugal.
The European Open Championships will
see around 380 athletes from 47 nations in action at the Penteada Swimming
Pools Complex from 16 to 22 May.
It will be the sixth edition of the
Europeans and the second time it takes place in Madeira. The first, in 2016,
featured impressive 28 world records in eight days.
One of the stars making a return to
the Portuguese island is Belarus Paralympic legend Ihar Boki, who bagged six
gold and one bronze medal five years ago.
“I’m feeling quite well. I have
promising times, but I am not sure how I will do in Madeira. It’s the first I’m
in a big event in a long time,” Boki said. “But my main task is to confirm my
success from the last time I was competing here.”
The European Championships were set
to take place last year but were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The
competition retained its original name Madeira 2020 although is taking place in
2021.
World Para Swimming and the Madeira
2020 Local Organising Committee (LOC) have implemented a series of COVID-19
counter measures in accordance to local and national health authorities for the
Euros, which will be closed for the public.
“This competition ‘bubble’ is fine
for me. [Actually] I have more time to have rest in these conditions,” Boki
said.
As in 2016, the Euros will be an Open
event allowing teams from outside Europe to compete in search of their marks to
qualify for Tokyo 2020 in August.
Another Paralympic hopeful in Madeira
is refugee Para athlete Ibrahim Al-Hussein. The Syrian-born swimmer was the
flag bearer of the first Paralympic team to take part in the Games at Rio 2016
and also competed at the last Europeans in Dublin, Ireland in 2018.
HOSTS' HOPE
Hosts Portugal will be represented by
eight athletes looking at improving the team performance from three years ago
when they took five medals in Dublin.
The competition marked an
international breakthrough for Susana Veiga, who won a silver medal in the
women’s 50m freestyle S9 – a result she repeated a year later at the London
2019 World Para Swimming Allianz Championships.
“I am feeling very excited. I am
really looking forward to improving on my best times and to enjoy this
experience which is going to be a little bit different,” said Veiga, who still
does not know how she will react when she jumps in the water to her first home
race in the women’s 100m freestyle S9 on Wednesday.
“I am really emotional. I will have
to wait for the day to see how I will react. It’s always a surprise for me.”
Being the country's main medal hope
comes with an additional pressure, but Veiga sees it as extra motivation.
“It’s normal to have a little bit of
pressure but I think I will just be focused on doing my best time and not about
the medals. I want to enjoy the experience,” added the 21-year-old.
“Being able to compete in this event
is a huge motivation for Tokyo. We are going to see a lot of the same athletes
competing in both Madeira and Tokyo. It’s good to see how our rivals are
performing.”
Ihar Boki will be one of the stars in
the pool on day one as he takes on the men’s 100m butterfly S13. Ukraine’s
Yelyzaveta Mereshko, who won eight medals at Dublin 2018, will compete in the
women’s 100m backstroke S6.
Another one to watch is five-time
world champion at London 2019 Simone Barlaam. The Italian will make his debut
at Madeira 2020 in the men’s 50m freestyle S10.
Ukraine topped the medals table at
Dublin 2018 with 106 (33 gold) ahead of Italy’s 72 (28 gold) and Great
Britain’s 55 (20 gold).
The European Open Championships will
be streamed live on World Para Swimming website www.worldparaswimming.org and
Facebook page www.facebook.com/ParaSwimming with geo-block restrictions in
Spain and the United Kingdom.
The International Paralympic
Committee (IPC) is the global governing body of the Paralympic Movement.
The IPC supervises the organisation
of the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games, and serves as the International
Federation for ten sports, for which it oversees and co-ordinates the World
Championships and other competitions, including swimming.
The IPC is committed to enabling Paralympic
athletes to achieve sporting excellence and to developing sport opportunities
for all persons with a disability from the beginner to elite level. In
addition, the IPC aims to promote the Paralympic values, which include courage,
determination, inspiration and equality.
For further information, please
contact Rafael Maranhao, IPC Public Relations Senior Manager
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