Paris 17th & 18th January 2003
Stockholm 21st & 22nd January 2003
Berlin 25th & 26th January 2003
After the Christmas and New Year break the action resumed in the European Zone of the FINA World Cup, with three meets in three cities in just over a week. A world class field was assembled which included Olympic Champions, Ian Thorpe (AUS), Pieter vanden Hoogenband (NED) and Tom Malchow (USA) as well as a host of other leading names. At the end of the week the $200,000 in prize money would be awarded for the top three overall places in the mens and womens events.
In Paris, James comfortably beat Olympic Champion, Tom Malchow (USA) in the 200m Butterfly taking victory in 1.53.03 to Malchow’s 1.54.0. To that he added gold in the 200 IM coming from behind with a superb swim in the freestyle leg to beat New Zealander, Dean Kent by 0.02 in a time of 1.57.32 and, in a very closely contested 100m Butterfly, finished second in 51.85 behind Igor Martchenko (RUS) who took gold in 51.56