Swimming Australia has relaxed its qualifying standards slightly for the 2015 Hancock Prospecting Short Course Swimming Championships, standards that had originally taken huge leaps forward from 2014.
We first reported on the time standards in May, noting that the 2015 versions had dropped by wide margins from their 2014 counterparts, often by a second or more per event and in some cases, by over 10 seconds.
But Swimming Australia updated those qualifying times in June, moving them back somewhat closer to their 2014 versions, though the 2015 cuts are still well faster across the board.
Swimming Australia posted a short statement with the updated qualifying times:
Swimming Australia have been reviewing the short course qualifying times and we would like to confirm the updated qualifying times for this year and the rationale that has been adopted.
Our first priority is to ensure Swimming Australia retains the high quality of performances at the National Short Course Championships, so the times reflect a sharpening of focus to deliver that quality.
The process undertaken included posting some initial qualifying times on the 21st May 2015 and based on feedback we’ve received, we have again reviewed them.
We settled upon the revised qualifying times (above) following consultation internally within Swimming Australia and with the High Performance Coaches forum.
We are confident that the revised standards will provide the opportunity to ensure we continue to promote high level competition on home soil.
For the most part, the biggest updates have come in the non-free strokes, where standards have risen somewhere around a second per 100, and sometimes more. The freestyle events are much more hit or miss, with only small increases or no increases in some races and big changes in others.
The relay standards did not change at all from their May 2015 versions.
The significantly raised standards were set to make short course nationals a very small and selective meet. The updates should allow quite a few more athletes in, though overall the standards are still considerably tougher than the 2014 version of the meet.
You can view the updated standards here.
The Hancock Prospecting Australian Short Course Swimming Championships will take place from November 26-28 in Sydney.