Teams spanning 23 countries are due to participate at the Stade Nautique Maurice-Thorez across three days of competition.

Competition is due to begin tomorrow with sole and team technical finals as well as duet and mixed pairs qualifications.

Finals in both of those events will then take place on Saturday (March 11) alongside solo free qualifying.

Sole, duet, mixed pairs and teams free finals will then all be held on Sunday (March 12).

As well as the French hosts, teams present will include Germany, Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Croatia, Britain, Israel, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Russia, Slovakia, Switzerland and Ukraine.

Non-European participants are Argentina, Canada, China, South Korea, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia and Uzbekistan.

The World Series is a new event seeking to integrate existing smaller synchro events from all over the world, with each leg staged in conjunction with existing national opens and competitions.

The Paris opener will be followed by the China Open in Taiyuan from April 22 to 24 and the Japan Open in Tokyo from April 28 to 30.

The Canada Open in Toronto is scheduled for May 2 to 7, while the Spanish Open is due to take place from May 26 to 28.

Rounding out the series will be the US Open in Long Island from June 22 to 24 and the Suv Parisi in Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent on dates to be confirmed in August.

In order to be eligible for the final ranking and corresponding prize money, countries must enter their team in at least four of the 2017 meets.

Participation in the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest, from July 14 to 30, is also mandatory.