Six Canadian athletes are ready to make their mark at the final two stops on the 2017 FINA/airweave Swimming World Cup tour – set to begin November 14, 2017.

Senior team swimmers, Mack Darragh (Oakville Aquatic Club), Montana Champagne (GO Kingfish) and Jackie Keire (Oakville Aquatic Club) arrived in Wakayama, Japan on November 5 for a short training camp before heading to Tokyo for the event. Development team swimmers, Mehdi Ayoubi (CAMO Natation), Antoine Bernard-Lalonde (CAMO Natation) and Maggie McNeil (London Aquatic Club) also joined the team in Tokyo for the competition.

The meet runs November 14 and 15. Results will be available on the FINA website: http://fina.org/event/fina/airweave-swimming-world-cup-2017-8/results.

The entire team will then travel to Singapore for the final World Cup stop of 2017, November 18 and 19.

The tour stops in Tokyo and Singapore are the first FINA World Cup stops for these Canadian athletes. The team will look to the experience of Rio 2016 Olympian Mack Darragh and 2017 FISU Summer Universiade gold medallist Jackie Keire to lead the way.

The trip provides the swimmers and Swimming Canada staff with valuable experience on the road to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

“FINA 25m World Cups are an important racing opportunity for athletes when they are in full training,” said John Atkinson, high performance director, Swimming Canada. “The added benefit of attending the Asian FINA World Cup cluster (Tokyo and Singapore) is it accustoms athletes, coaches and staff to the environment for the next Olympic Games, and in this instance the senior athletes trained for a short period in Wakayama, which is where Swimming Canada will hold staging camps for the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships and the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.”

After five legs of World Cup stops in the books, Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom leads the women’s competition in overall tour points, and Chad Le Clos of South Africa leads the men’s side. Kierra Smith is the lone ranked Canadian on tour, currently sitting in 19th place having only competed at one stop.