Posted By : Cheshunt SC On 2013-09-09 00:46:00
As you have all noticed, the Qualifying times for BAGCATs & Youths for the 2014 Championships have been tightened up. This has been done to control the numbers of swimmers qualifying as the events are getting bigger every year and are now at the point where we are struggling to accommodate everyone that qualifies. We were keen to avoid the situation where swimmers achieve a qualifying time but are then rejected from the competition due to it being over-subscribed.
This year, times for 12-14 year old BAGCAT swimmers have been set at 106% of the National Qualifying times using the National Short Course times as the baseline. For the 11 year olds we have used the 11/12 year old Long Course time and for the 10 year olds we have used the same difference from the 11 year olds as was used for the 2013 Regional Championships.
All Youth times have been set at 107% National Qualifying times using converted Long Course times as the baseline. Converting the Long Course times gives us a slower baseline time hence some of the Youth times are slower than the 14 year olds – particularly for the girls. The 50m form events are all based on the National Open Time – this is the only time available.
These times have been agreed by the Technical Swimming Committee in light of the fact that we recognise we have to reduce the number of swimmers, particularly in the BAGCAT Championships (hence the different percentages).
We decided to run our competitions at a set off-set from Nationals in order to preserve the integrity of the events as Regional Championships. At present we do not want to adjust times to fit a set number of swimmers in for each event as we feel that undermines the quality of the competitions.
We are looking at alternative ways of setting QT’s and have set up a subcommittee to look into this for 2015 and beyond.
ASAER Technical Swimming Committee.
DOWNLOAD QUALIFYING TIMES HERE.