The ambitions of a European select team from Great Britain, Germany and Italy to beat the United States at the British Gas Duel in the Pool in Manchester in December suffered a severe blow yesterday. Just as the American aquatic superpower announced a line-up of its biggest stars, three of the top swimmers from Europe looked set to withdraw.

Team USA could hardly have selected a more competitive squad for the meeting at the Manchester Aquatics Centre on December 18 and 19 — among its 36 swimmers are ten Olympic and world champions, including Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. But hopes of getting Germany’s Paul Biedermann, who inflicted a rare defeat on Phelps, the 14-times Olympic champion, in July, Britta Steffen, his compatriot and double Olympic and world sprint freestyle champion, and Federica Pellegrini, the Italian double world champion, to Manchester are slim.

Biedermann is committed to racing in St Petersburg, Russia, the day before the duel, and Pellegrini is taking time out after the sudden death this month of Alberto Castagnetti, the Italy head coach and her personal mentor. Steffen is almost sure to be at Germany’s equivalent of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards on the weekend of the meet.

Should Pellegrini opt out, she would deprive the meet of one of the most eagerly awaited line-ups, alongside Rebecca Adlington, the double Olympic champion, and Joanne Jackson, the winner of three medals at this year’s World Championships in Rome.

Efforts are being made to get Biedermann to Manchester. The organisers have switched the last session to Saturday afternoon, instead of the morning, to give the German more time to travel from Russia, while Dirk Lange, the Germany head coach, is urging the swimmer to make it. But Frank Embacher, Biedermann’s coach, told The Times: “Paul wants to race in St Petersburg . . . there is no direct flight to Manchester, and we’re looking at a seven-hour connection-flight.” He laughed at the prospect of stepping off a long flight on to a block to face Phelps.

When Biedermann beat Phelps he wore an arena X-Glide bodysuit that Embacher credited with providing his charge with 0.7sec of extra speed every 50 metres. Phelps says he will wear a 2010 textile-only suit from the waist to above the knees and hopes that all others will join him in the spirit of fair competition. Lochte, Phelps’s team-mate, said yesterday: “I might go crazy and wear a banana hammock [traditional briefs].”

The event will mark the first time that Gemma Spofforth, Britain’s 100 metres backstroke world champion who is based in Florida, has competed at a leading international event in Britain. “I’m really excited by it,” she said.

• Tickets for the British Gas Duel can be bought at duelinthepool.com.

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