JAMAICAN swim star Alia Atkinson will open her campaign at the 11th FINA World Swimming (Short Course) Championships at the Sinan Erdem Dome in Istanbul, Turkey, today in the Women’s 50m breaststroke.

The 24-year-old, three-time Olympian will compete in lane four of heat eight and with the fastest qualifying time of 29.87 seconds, she is expected to advance to the semi-finals later in the day.

Atkinson will also compete in the 100m medley tomorrow in heat six of seven where she will face favourite Zsuzanna Jakabos of Hungary. The Jamaican has a qualifying time of 59.96, compared to the Hungarian’s 59.15 seconds.

Overall, Atkinson will also have to contend with another Hungarian Katinka Hosszu, 58.83 seconds, and Germany’s Theresa Michalak, 59.62 seconds.

The semi-final of the 100m medley and the final of women’s 50m breaststroke will also take place tomorrow.

At the last World Short Course Championships in Dubai in 2010, Atkinson finished sixth in the 50m breaststroke final and failed to advance from the preliminaries in the 100m medley.