Sources from the German Swimming Federation (DSV) have just announced that the Berlin stop of the 2019 FINA World Cup Series, which has recently been added to their event calendar, has not yet been officially confirmed. The status of the competition is tentative pending ongoing negotiations with both FINA and the city of Berlin.
The Berlin meet was added to replace the former stop in Eindhoven, which the Dutch Swimming Federation relinquished to FINA back in March.
“After a thorough evaluation with all parties involved,” said André Cats, technical director of the KNZB, “we have decided to return the organization of the World Cup competition to FINA.” He further went on to cite issues relating to the cost of hosting as well as hesitance to invest in a short course meters competition during an Olympic year, among other reasons.
Berlin had been a staple stop of the FINA World Cup Series prior to being cut from the lineup back in 2018, which is when it was replaced by Eindhoven. Prior to the Dutch Swimming Federation’s announcement, Eindhoven was expected to be a standard part of the World Cup Series schedule.
In a more recent development, however, the DSV sent out a press release asserting that they have not yet agreed to host one of the FINA World Cup stops in Berlin. The DSV says that they have only agreed to list Berlin as a potential location for one of the sites among the series’ lineup.
Sources also suggest that all parties are working together with the ostensible goal of hosting in Berlin – barring that the right conditions are met.
Despite the DSV’s obections, the FINA website continues to list Berlin as part of its schedule for the 2019 series. Their schedule reads as follows:
Cluster 1
1. Tokyo (JPN) – August 2-4
2. Jinan (CHN) – August 8-10
3. Singapore (SGP) – August 15-17
Cluster 2
4. Budapest (HUN) – October 4-6
5. TBC Berlin (GER) – October 11-13
Cluster 3
6. Kazan (RUS) – November 1-3
7. Doha (QAT) – November 7-9