The Andorran Swimming Federation presents the team set to take part in the World Short Course Championships in Melbourne

Escaldes-Engordany, 1st December 2022.

The Andorran Swimming Federation has presented the team that will compete from 13th to 18th December in the World Short Course Championships to be held in the Australian city of Melbourne. The press conference was held in Andbank’s Manel Cerqueda Hall and attended by Josep Maria Cabanes, the deputy director of Banca País, Joan Clotet, the president of the FAN, and Alfonso Maltrana, the technical director, and the audience included representatives of Kone, the company sponsoring the federation, and Justo Ruiz, the Secretary of State.

The brothers Bernat and Tomàs Lomero and Nàdia Tudó will make up the team that’s set to travel to Australia to compete there. Bernat will do so in the 50-metre freestyle and butterfly events, Tomàs will compete in the 100 metres in the same disciplines and Nàdia will take part in the 100 and 200-metre breaststroke events. According to Maltrana, “swimming in Australia is like playing football in Brazil. It’s the most important or one of the most important sports in the country and the Melbourne Sports Aquatic Centre is a great place to swim at”. With regard to personal bests, the FAN’s technical director said that the aim is to improve the personal bests of each of the swimmers in their disciplines.

Meanwhile, Clotet explained that “in principle, these championships should have been held in Kazan (Russia). But, due to the circumstances we’re all aware of, they had to be moved”. The choice of Melbourne has hindered the FAN’s logistics, and its president said that “it’s obvious that going to Kazan isn’t the same as going to Australia, but, despite this, we’ll be able to travel with three swimmers”. The first of them to compete will be Bernat Lomero, who’ll do so on 13th December in the qualifying rounds of the 50-metre butterfly. Tuesday 14th December will see the débuts of Tomàs Lomero and Nàdia Tudó, who’ll respectively swim in the 100-metre freestyle and 100-metre breaststroke. On Friday 16th Tudó will compete again in the 200-metre breaststroke and Bernat will do so in the 50-metre freestyle, while the final race involving an Andorran will be the 100-metre butterfly on the 17th, in which Tomàs will be competing.

As for the World Championships themselves, the event in Australia will bring together over a thousand swimmers from about 180 countries, as Clotet confirmed. Finally, Cabanes wished the best of luck to the swimmers, recalling “the great work that the Swimming Federation does for the country’s sport, striving to represent us on the international stage but also at grassroots level. And, with perseverance, I’m sure that the results will arrive very soon”.