Stellar line-up for Berlin swimming IDM

A series of superstar swimmers have made the journey to Berlin, Germany, for the annual Internationale Deutsche Meisterschaft (IDM), which gets underway on Thursday (9 June).

The competition will be streamed live at IPC Swimming’s website.

Results will be available at the IDM website.

The competition is notorious for attracting some of the world’s best athletes. This year around 600 athletes from 40 countries will compete ahead of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

Brazil’s Paralympic and world champion Andre Brasil will be hoping to avoid a repeat of the men’s 50m freestyle S10 race from the European Open in Funchal, Portugal, in May. There he lost out to World Championships silver medallist teammate Phelipe Rodrigues.

Another Brazilian, Matheus Sousa, is also enjoying an upturn in form and will compete as a double European Open gold medallist from the 400m and 100m freestyle S11.

Japan’s world champion Keichi Kimura will be one of Sousa’s main opponents in the 100m breaststroke and 100m butterfly S11.

Brazil’s 10-time Paralympic champion Daniel Dias is in Berlin looking to hone his racing ahead of Rio 2016. He left the European Open with a new world record in the men’s 50m backstroke S5.

Seventeen-year-old Colombian Carlos Serrano will make his Paralympic debut in 2016. Having become a world champion and world record holder in the men’s 100m breaststroke SB7 in 2015, the youngster is aiming to follow that up with Paralympic gold.

Italy’s Vincenzo Boni is another Paralympic newcomer. Boni has emerged as one of the faces to watch in the men’s S3 events, winning three medals on his international debut at the 2015 Worlds. He followed that up with a European title in the 50m backstroke just a few weeks ago.

In the men’s intellectually impaired events, Iceland’s 200m freestyle S14 Paralympic champion Jon Margeir Sverrisson is the headline act.

Competitive women’s field

Hosts Germany will cheer on world and Paralympic champion Daniela Schulte in the women’s 400m freestyle S11.

Also in the field is New Zealand’s Mary Fisher who will defend her 200m individual medley SM11 Paralympic title in September. Fisher will also hope to add the 100m backstroke gold after winning the world title in 2015.

Sweden’s Maja Reichard returns to the pool after lowering the women’s 50m freestyle S11 world record on her way to gold at the European Open last month.

The women’s S9 will feature a clash between Australia’s triple Paralympic champion Ellie Cole and Spanish star Sarai Gascon.

Gascon collected medals from both Beijing 2008 and London 2012 but is missing a Paralympic title. This year she stormed to four individual European titles to add to her 50m freestyle World Championships gold from 2015.

Great Britain’s Steph Millward will also compete having returned to major competition at the Euros, winning three individual medals.

Singapore’s Beijing 2008 Paralympic champion Yip Pin Xiu has reignited her best form in the women’s S2 in 2016. Xiu broke the 50m and 100m backstroke world records at the European Open. The 24-year-old is in Berlin to challenge herself once more.

France’s Paralympic gold medallist Elodie Lorandi recently announced that she will retire after the 2017 World Championships in Mexico City. Before that she will defend her 400m freestyle S10 title at her third and final Paralympics in Rio, and is aiming to go out on a high.