Artistic swimming Olympic qualification tournament to be held in Tokyo in July

BEIJING, April 20 (Xinhua) -- The Artistic swimming Olympic operational test and Olympic qualification meet will both be held in July in Tokyo, Japan, swimming's world governing body FINA announced on Monday.

According to a FINA press release, the decision was jointly made between FINA, the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, Japanese authorities and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The previous plan was to move the Artistic swimming Olympic Qualification event to June 2021 to a location outside Japan, while the meet was originally to be held from May 1 to 4 in Tokyo.

FINA said despite the sincere efforts from the Japanese authorities to keep the Artistic swimming Olympic qualification event in Japan, challenges related to the international calendar and the necessary adaptation of the venue to the Olympic Games' operations in mid-May contributed to this difficult decision.

FINA rescheduled the dates for the FINA Diving World Cup 2021 from May 1 to 6 at the Tokyo Aquatics Center, and the Marathon Swimming Olympic Qualification event will take place in Setubal, Portugal on June 19-20.