SINGAPORE — Olympic champions Ruta Meilutyte, Cesar Cielo and Anthony Ervin, and possibly Ryan Lochte, are set to be among the names for the first major international swimming meet at the Sports Hub, and possibly the biggest swimming meet in Singapore in recent years.

Scheduled from Sept 5 to 7, the Singapore Swim Stars will take place at the Sports Hub’s OCBC Aquatics Centre, an indoor venue that can seat up to 6,000 spectators when it is completed later this year.

Organised by Frenchman Stephan Caron, a two-time Olympic men’s 100m freestyle bronze medallist, the meet is likely to focus on the 50m and 100m sprint events. According to swimming news website swimvortex.com, it also has a budget of US$1 million (S$1.27 million).

Caron’s co-organiser Harald Eltvedt declined to reveal details of the meet, which is expected to be discussed at a briefing by the Sports Hub today.

However, Singapore-based Eltvedt told TODAY they are in talks with the Singapore Sports Council for the meet to be a regular, long-term one, possibly for five years, and for it to be worth the hype.

“The format will be very innovative and one that has never been done before, and we already have many of the world’s top swimmers who have agreed to come for this,” he said yesterday. “We want to develop this event into an extremely prestigious one, behind only the Olympics and the World Championships.”

According to swimvortex.com, the meet could also be a trial for the proposed “Golden League”, swimming’s answer to the lucrative “Diamond League” in athletics, which offers up to US$480,000 in prize money per meet.

Other top names set for Singapore include France’s Florent Manaudou, who won the men’s 50m freestyle at the 2012 London Olympics, 2013 men’s world 100m freestyle champion James Magnussen of Australia and Denmark’s Jeanette Ottesen, the 2011 women’s world 100m freestyle champion.

The Singapore Swimming Association (SSA), which could act as the event’s sanctioning body, has also requested for at least two spots in each event for the Republic’s national swimmers.

The meet could also feature fringe activities, including coaching clinics for children, corporate events and dinners, and possibly a relay challenge between some of the stars and the children.

The Singapore Swim Stars would be the second swim meet at the Sports Hub, after the South-east Asian Championships from June 14 to 26, and held about two months before the Singapore leg of the FINA World Cup short-course (25m) series, which could move from the Singapore Sports School to the Sports Hub this year.

Said SSA Executive Director Edwin Ker: “We’re trying to leverage on this meet to attract top swimmers and potential sponsors to also come in for the FINA World Cup (in Singapore), maybe even convince sponsors to support both events.” TAN YO-HINN