Qualifying Times
Most meets will have qualifying times and some meets will have Upper Cut Off Times. A swimmer has to be able to swim faster that the Qualifying Time to be able to enter a meet. Likewise if a swimmer has
achieved a time faster than the Upper Cut Off time they will be unable to enter the meet. You will see these referred to on the entry packs as QT’s (Qualifying Times) and CT’s (Cut off Times –sometimes referred to as upper time limits or UCT’s).
Northumberland and Durham County Championships (N & D’s)
Every county holds an annual County Championships which are long course and held over several weekends in February and March. At this high level of competition, TASC swimmers who have achieved the qualifying times are expected to compete in both individual and team events if required to do so.
Qualifying times for N & D’s will be published towards the beginning of the season to give swimmers until January to achieve the time.
North East Regional Championships (NER’s)
This is the next level of championship, and consists of both short course (held in December) and long course (held in May/June) competitions. Each region holds annual championships. These are split into two: Youth/Senior championships which are for girls aged 14+ and boys aged 15+. This is followed by Age Group Championships for younger swimmers. At this high level of competition, TASC swimmers who have achieved the qualifying times are expected to compete in both individual and team events if required to do so.
Qualifying times for NER’s will be published towards the beginning of the season to give swimmers until January to achieve the time.
National Championships
This is the top level of competition and is made up of swimmers from across the country. These again are split into the two categories Age Group Championships take place in July and Youths take place in July/early August. These long course championships are open to swimmers who have achieved the qualifying times.
Qualifying times for Nationals are published by the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) towards the beginning of the season. Qualifying times can only be achieved at level 1 and level 2 open galas, N & D’s or NER’s.
Short course and Long course Qualifying Times and converting times.
To convert short / long course times please follow this link: Short / Long Course Conversion
After receiving gala entries from squad reps the Competition Secretary will check to see if any of our swimmers have improved their times and have become too fast to enter the event. If this does occur swimmers will be withdrawn and refunds provided. However it is the parent’s responsibility to ensure that their child is not entered into a gala in which they are too fast.
For short course galas we will only use short course times achieved by swimmers regardless of whether a long course converted time would place them in a faster heat. We will do this even when the host club has set the gala file to accept long course converted times.
For long course galas we will use long course times achieved. We will only use long course times that are less than 6 months old as the opportunity to swim long course events are far fewer than short course events. We will only use short course converted times if no long course time is available.
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