Stage One Meet - 23 October - Loughborough

[Curly]

Just seen on the ASA website about the Stage One Meet which is compulsory for UK based swimmers who want to be considered for Team England.

Swimmers must enter a 50m and a 100m event (presumably in addition to anything else they might like to enter) and there will only be 2 heats per event (not sure if that will be 10 swimmers per heat or 8) and that events are Heat Declared. It will be swum in 2x2 hour back-to-back sessions over one day. There are no qualifying times and swimmers do not have to enter the event which they are hoping to qualify for at the Commonwealth Games.

It is to be swum short course so the entry form asks for S/C entry times. With the emphasis on the CG Trials entry times being long course only, it seems that quite a few swimmers don't have up to date s/c times (perhaps this doesn't matter as there is no cut off date for achieving the entered time).

I just wondered what Team England/ASA are trying to achieve by running this meet and particularly why they are using this unusual format.

[Vicki]

I really don’t see the point in this meet - can some knowledgeable enlighten me?!?!

So you basically just have to enter something if you want to be considered for the Commonwealths - so a breaststroker could enter a backstroke event and be considered?

Seems very odd to me - cant work out what benefit they'll get from it esp. as its a short course event anyway. Bizarre!

[Katie]

It's weird, on all the other stage 1 meets haven't they just invited people? And as Vicki says could a swimmer hoping to be considered for the 100 back swim the 50 free and 100 fly or something? Not that there'd be too much point but anyway...

[Steve]

They could swim any event they wanted to to maintain their eligibility for selection, but to be selected for a particular event in Melbourne, swimmers must have competed in at least the heats of the event they are aiming for at the trials.

I suspect that the point of this meet is for the team staff to get everyone together to see how their training is going and see what kind of shape they are in.