The Mare Nostrum circuit starts in Barcelona this weekend, and our guy Pál Joensen will be there, along with 4 juniors from our Faroese squad. The start list promises a lot of world-class racing, as swim stars from around the world prepare for Shanghai 2011.
Top names are for instance Rafael Muñoz and Mireia Belmonte GarcÃa from Spain, Sébastien Rouault and Diane Bui Duyet from France, Liam Tancock and Keri-Anne Payne from Great Britain, Roland Schoeman and Cameron van der Burgh from South Africa, Leisel Jones and Jessicah Schipper from Australia, Junya Koga and Ryosuke Irie from Japan, Alexander Dale Oen and Ingvild Snildal from Norway, Gergo Kis and László Cseh from Hungary, Stanislav Donets and Danila Izotov from Russia, Joline Höstman and Lars Frölander from Sweden, Duje Draganja from Croatia, Hanna-Maria Seppälä from Finland, Samuel Pizzetti from Italy, Grainne Murphy from Ireland and Kristel Kobrich from Chile.
Our squad is first and foremost Pál Joensen, entering with third-best time in the 400 freestyle and second-best time in the 1500. He won a bronze medal at the Mare Nostrum event in Canet last year, but will only swim the Barcelona event this year, because of exams back home.
With him are 4 younger Faroese swimmers preparing for the European Juniors in Belgrade this summer, who need a bit of tough racing in a 50 meter pool. Faroe Islands has no 50 meter pool, and we therefore have to send them abroad for training and racing long course, as much as our limited finances allow.
Visit www.marenostrum.com. You could go straight to www.marenostrumswim.com/barcelone, but then you’d miss the theme song on the front page, and that would be a shame :-)
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