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Carcassonne Warm-Up For Manaudou

Feb 20, 2013

News Round-Up: 

France: Olympic 50m freestyle champion Florent Manaudou is scheduled to race at the 6th Carcassonne international on June 23 as part of his preparations for the world championships in Barcelona this summer. Jérôme Bouba, organiser of the Club Nautique Carcassonnais, confirmed the sprinter's plans and expected Frédérick Bousquet to accompany Manaudou at the meet. Just to see such sprinters in action would be an inspiration for local swimmers, Bouba told local media.

Dubai: Bob Bowman, USA men's head coach and mentor to Michael Phelps, met with the Dubai Sports Council this week to discuss the possibility of starting a centre of excellence at the Hamdan Sports Complex aquatic centre in association with the Phelps Foundation. Local media quote the coach as stating: "It's an honour for me to be here and to visit Dubai for the first time and I think this can become a great place for swimming to grow and develop. Michael Phelps and I share the goal of raising the profile of the sport of swimming. As part of that we want to go to areas where we think there are great opportunities such as Dubai and help local children to learn how to swim and progress through the ranks so that they can compete against the best in the world and enjoy the real benefits of the great sport of swimming. We are in early stages of negotiations where I can provide some technical expertise in bringing some swimmers here and start a centre of excellence from this facility, which is amazing. I was incredibly impressed by the facilities here - it is beyond belief and I am sure it is the best in the world." Culture not complexes is what Bowman can offer. "It's a great place where some exciting things can happen with young athletes," said the American coach who recently helped Britain with its post-London 2012 inquiry as an agent for TSE Consulting. He tweeted: @MichaelPhelps and I want to help grow the sport of swimming in the entire Middle East region. @MPSwimSchool. The start of a new journey.

Dubai held the world short-course championships in 2010 but withdrew from a commitment to host the long-course world titles on financial grounds. In October 2010, US swimmer Fran Crippen lost his life in a marathon FINA World Cup event off the coast of Dubai, the tragedy prompting two inquiries that led to widespread changes in the organisation of and safety arrangements in open water swimming.