Lausanne, Dec 18 (IANS): The FINA Artistic Swimming Virtual Challenge will be held on Saturday and Sunday, swimming's global governing body announced.

In a media release, FINA and its Technical Artistic Swimming Committee (TASC) say they have developed a brand new concept for a virtual challenge in the discipline amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. A 45 seconds dryland routine will be performed by athletes entering the competition from across the globe.

The routines will be filmed using an Instagram water effect app that gives the illusion of athletes performing in the water.

"The goal of this brand new concept is to provide a unique opportunity for the community to engage in a fun challenge that can be joined from anywhere and to continue to offer options for the athletes to perform ahead of the FINA Artistic Swimming Olympic Games Qualification Tournament 2021 from March 4-7 and the Tokyo Olympic Games in July 2021," FINA said.