SHANGHAI - The second stage of the FINA Swimming World Cup (25m) got underway today in the swimming complex situated in the Jing An Sports Centre. This is the fourth meet in the 2000-2001 series, the first in Zone 2 (Asia and Australia). Preliminaries started at 9 am, finals at 7 pm. The meet is televised nationwide. Over 100 swimmers, representing sixteen federations (countries) are taking part.

Highlights of the first day:

Men:

100 FREESTYLE: Alex Popov(RUS), who recently turned 29, won the event with a time of 49.11 secs. from lane 5, beating Scott Tucker (USA), who was the fastest qualifier. Tucker placed in second with 49.82. After the award ceremony Alex was asked questions questions from not less than forty journalists, representing the major Chinese media. He also had to sign many autographs. He said he would continue as a top level swimmer. Admittedly Alex did not stop training after the Olympics. He did not even missed a training session. Instead, with refreshed enthusiasm, he added more dry land exercises, including some weights, to his program.

Asked for how long he had planned to stay in swimming he surprised everybody with this answer: " According to my coach Gennady Touretski I can swim this level until I am 37". Tourestki confirmed: "I was only partly joking. Alex