Young local swimmer Damien Payet will once again rub shoulders with the elite in the last leg of the Fédération Internationale de Natation (Fina) marathon swim world series which will take place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

The competition will take place at the Emirates Palace on Friday and Payet who leaves the country today will be accompanied by French coach Guillaume Bachmann.

Friday’s competition will be organised on a 2km course where the swimmers must complete five laps.

It will be the third race for Payet in this year’s series and for the first time he will be competing without his brother Bertrand.

In the first series race held in Qatar, Payet did not complete the race, while in the second race held at the Beau Vallon beach in March, he completed the race 23rd overall in 2 hours, 11 minute 55.4 seconds in (2h11:55.4).

Very confident and prepared, Damien told Sports NATION he has been training very hard for the event and he is certain that he would complete it in a better time, compared to his last performance.

“I have been training very hard and I am sure i will perform much faster,” said the young swimmer.

Friday’s race will be the last in this year’s series which began in Doha (Qatar, March 3), Beau Vallon (Seychelles, May 20), Setubal (Portugal, June 9), Balatonfüred (Hungary, June 16), Lac St. Jean (Canada, July 26), Lac Megantic (Canada, August 11), Chun’An (China, September 16) and  Taiwan (September 22).

The Fina marathon swim world series annually staged elite-level competition is organised in over nine locations and takes places in either fresh water or sea.

Since 2007, Fina decided to focus the World Cup on the 10km distance only, as a direct consequence of the introduction of the 10km marathon swim into the Olympic programme in 2008.

Each event comprises one day competition programme (for men and women) and approximately +50 national federations and 370 athletes from all over the world.

The event prize money is US $30,000 while the overall prize money is US $250,000. Both prizes are divided across the first eight women and men swimmers, making a total prize money purse of US $550,000.

As of this year, Fina is staging officially together with the elite race (10km) which foresees the involvement of Olympic and World Championships medallists, the mass participation event (Open Challenge).

In each event, points are awarded to the swimmers depending upon their race finishing position.

Swimmers may accumulate points at each event in which they take part and finish, with their total points counting towards the overall final rankings for each year.

The overall annual winners will be decided by the male and female swimmers respectively, who have accumulated the most points at events in that year, provided that they have taken part in a minimum of 70 percent of events in that year, including the final event of the season.

Until now, the men’s standings is being led by Dutch swimmer Ferry Weetman (78 points), followed by Britain’s Jack Burnell (62 points). Simone Ruffini of Italy is third (55 points), followed by Dutchman Marcel Scouten (51 points) and Italian Mateo Furlan (50 points).

The women’s competition is being led by Brazilian Ana Marcela Cunha (96 points), followed by Sharon Van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands (66 points).

Italian Rachele Bruni is third also on 66 points, ahead of Leonie Beck of Germany who is on 62 points. Finnia Wunram also from Germany is fifth on 52 points.

The annual prize money to be awarded for both the men’s and women’s series overall winners is as follows:

1st US $38,000

2nd US $26,000

3rd US $18,000

4th US $15,000

5th US $11,000

6th US $8,500

7th US $5,000

8th US $3,500