SINGAPORE — One of the top names for this weekend’s Singapore leg of the FINA/airweave Swimming World Cup (Oct 3-4) has decided to pull out at the last minute.

Frenchman Florent Manaudou, the reigning men’s 50m freestyle Olympic champion, did not arrive in Singapore as scheduled to Singapore today (Oct 1). According to media reports, the 24-year-old pulled out because of a wrist injury.

Citing French sports newspaper L’Equipe, swimming website SwimSwam said: “He injured his wrist during a weight lifting session in Marseille.

“According to L’Equipe, Jacques Favre, France’s National Technical Director, received the news in a phone call from Manaudou’s coach, Romain Barnier today.

“While Barnier didn’t sound super alarmed, he did say that Manaudou, with his wrist in a splint, will be unable to use his arms for the next two to three weeks.”

Later today, the organising committee of the Singapore meet confirmed that Manaudo did not arrive in Singapore as scheduled.

“It was reported earlier that Florent Manaudou had sustained an injury to his wrist, and has pulled out of the Fina/airweave Swimming World Cup Singapore 2015 presented by Yakult,” said the statement.

“The organising committee of the Fina/airweave Swimming World Cup Singapore 2015 presented by Yakult can confirm that Florent Manaudou did not arrive as scheduled.”

Manaudou, 24, has been piling up a series of strong swims leading up the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, including three gold medals (50m free, 50m fly, 4x100m free) at the FINA World Championships in Kazan in August.

A total of 263 international swimmers are scheduled to compete in this weekend’s meet which is the fifth leg of the eighth-leg event. Stars include American four-time Olympic champion Missy Franklin and Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu who holds multiple world records.