DUBAI // The opening round of the 2012 Fina Swimming World Cup will get off to a star-studded start at Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Sports Complex in Dubai today with nine world record holders and two gold medal winners from the London Olympic Games in the fray.
Cameron van der Burgh, who set a world 100m breaststroke record, will be the headline act at the two-day meeting alongside his South African compatriot Chad le Clos, the Olympic 200m butterfly champion.
The event will also feature the Swedish superstar Therese Alshammar, the reigning and four-time World Cup champion who holds the 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly World Cup records. Her time of 24.38 seconds in the 50m butterfly is also the short course (25m) world record.
The event has attracted more than 190 swimmers from 32 countries, including Evgeny Korotyshkin, the men's 100m butterfly world record holder.
"London was a great swimming event," said Cornel Marculescu, the executive director of Fina, world's swimming governing body. "It's a great challenge for them to continue training after the Olympics. These swimmers are swimming 15km to 20km every day in training and the efforts can be really tiring."
Some of the UAE's most promising swimmers, including Mubarak Al Besher, will also be competing. The UAE-based Serbian, Velimir Stjepanovic, who reached the final of the men's 200m butterfly in London, will also be adding to the local flavour.
"There are so many great swimmers competing and we know we will have to produce our best efforts to match it with them," said Al Besher, who was a wild card at the London Games.
"Having regular competitions of this standard is really good for swimming in the UAE, it's exciting for the crowds and it inspires us to train harder."
The Dubai leg of the World Cup will feature 36 competitions, including two mixed relays, which are making their first appearance at a World Cup. "It's a good opportunity to try it out at the World Cup and we'll probably get to see some different competitions," Alshammar said.
Van der Burgh said: "I think it will be interesting. You always need to try and keep swimming up and exciting, and the only way you can grow and make the sport interesting and more professional for more people is by getting more people involved and more events."
arizvi@thenational.ae
LEADING LIGHTS IN THE POOL
Chad le Clos, South Africa
The reigning World Cup champion, Le Clos edged out his hero Michael Phelps by 0.05 seconds in London to win the 200m butterfly gold. The South African also took the silver medal in the 100m butterfly and after his exploits at the Olympics, Le Clos is one of the hottest properties in swimming.
Cameron van der Burgh, South Africa
The holder of two breaststroke short course world records is also the 2012 Olympic 100m breaststroke champion. Van der Burgh is one of the biggest stars in the line-up having won the World Cup twice before, in 2008 and 2009. He will be looking for a good start in Dubai as he tries to win back the crown.
Therese Alshammar, Sweden
The Swede turned 35 in August, but age has not diminished her enthusiasm for the sport. She won two silver medals at the 2000 Sydney Games and is the queen of short-course swimming with four World Cup titles. She is no pushover in the long course either, having won the 50m freestyle gold and the 50m butterfly silver at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships.
Evgeny Korotyshkin, Russia
The holder of the 100m butterfly short course world record, the Russian took silver in the event at the London Games, tied with Le Clos in a time of 51.44 seconds, 0.23 seconds behind Phelps. Korotyshkin will be renewing his rivalry with Le Clos in Dubai.
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Director: James Gray
Stars: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones
Five out of five stars
Breast cancer in men: the facts
1) Breast cancer is men is rare but can develop rapidly. It usually occurs in those over the ages of 60, but can occasionally affect younger men.
2) Symptoms can include a lump, discharge, swollen glands or a rash.
3) People with a history of cancer in the family can be more susceptible.
4) Treatments include surgery and chemotherapy but early diagnosis is the key.
5) Anyone concerned is urged to contact their doctor
PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
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Cinco in numbers
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46
The number, in kilograms, that Swarovski’s wedding gown weighed.
1,000
The hours it took to create Cinco’s vermillion petal gown, as seen in his atelier [note, is the one he’s playing with in the corner of a room]
50
How many looks Cinco has created in a new collection to celebrate Ballet Philippines’ 50th birthday
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The hours needed to create the butterfly gown worn by Aishwarya Rai to the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
1.1 million
The number of followers that Michael Cinco’s Instagram account has garnered.
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Martin Sabbagh profile
Job: CEO JCDecaux Middle East
In the role: Since January 2015
Lives: In the UAE
Background: M&A, investment banking
Studied: Corporate finance
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
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Brief scores:
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Australia 158-4 (17 ov)
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Dhawan 76, Karthik 30; Zampa 2-22
Result: Australia won by 4 runs by D/L method
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
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UAE results
Beat China by 16 runs
Lost to Thailand by 10 wickets
Beat Nepal by five runs
Beat Hong Kong by eight wickets
Beat Malaysia by 34 runs
Standings (P, W, l, NR, points)
1. Thailand 5 4 0 1 9
2. UAE 5 4 1 0 8
3. Nepal 5 2 1 2 6
4. Hong Kong 5 2 2 1 5
5. Malaysia 5 1 4 0 2
6. China 5 0 5 0 0
Final
Thailand v UAE, Monday, 7am
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The bio:
Favourite film:
Declan: It was The Commitments but now it’s Bohemian Rhapsody.
Heidi: The Long Kiss Goodnight.
Favourite holiday destination:
Declan: Las Vegas but I also love getting home to Ireland and seeing everyone back home.
Heidi: Australia but my dream destination would be to go to Cuba.
Favourite pastime:
Declan: I love brunching and socializing. Just basically having the craic.
Heidi: Paddleboarding and swimming.
Personal motto:
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Heidi: Live, love, laugh and have no regrets.
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2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
