ORGANISERS CONFIRM MELLOULI ARRIVAL TODAY FOR FINA/ARENA WORLD CUP Presented by Telstra

Sydney, October 21: OLYMPIC 1500m freestyle champion Oussama Mellouli has confirmed with Sydney FINA/ARENA World Cup organisers that he will arrive in Sydney this afternoon, Tuesday, October 21 (SA Flight 7700 at 14.45pm) for this weekend's two-day meet to be presented by Telstra at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre.

Mellouli won five gold medals at the FINA/ARENA World Cup meet in Durban last weekend after winning three events at the opening round in Belo Horizonte. The man who denied Grant Hackett a place in Olympic history in Beijing, has entered six events at the Sydney meet - the 200, 400 and 1500 metres freestyle and the 100, 200 and 400m individual medleys.

Meanwhile, FINA has confirmed that Australian pair Marieke Guehrer and Christian Sprenger have maintained their lead in the chase for the $US100,000 prize purses after the first two rounds of the seven-event Series, which will move on to Singapore, Moscow, Stockholm and Berlin over the next month.

Guehrer scored 999 points for her victory in the 50m butterfly in Durban, where she clocked 25.56. She now leads the overall ranking with 50 points.

Behind her is 2007 winner Therese Alshammar (SWE), with 29 points. Alshammar's best performance in Durban came with her silver medal swim to Guehrer in the 50m butterfly (25.80 for 971 points). Her compatriot Josefin Lillhage is third with 27 points.

Sprenger's second place finish in the 50m breaststroke (26.74) in Durban gained him 980 points and gave him the second-place overall and he now leads the overall ranking with 45 points, while Durban 50m breaststroke winner Cameron de Burgh (RSA) has 25 points and Randall Bal (USA), winner of the 50m and 100m backstroke in Durban is third with 23 points. Alshammar, Lillhage, de Burgh and Bal have not entered for the Sydney meet which has attracted a host of Australia's Beijing team, including Alice Mills, Cate Campbell, Felicity Galvez, Bronte Barratt, Nick Ffrost, Pat Murphy and Brenton Rickard.

Points are calculated on the FINA Pointscores and the top three performances at each meet are then awarded 25, 20 and 16 points respectively. Both Guehrer and Sprenger will contest the rest of the Series. - Ian Hanson

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