2004 FINA Masters Championships

Several folks have said they either can't find or have difficulty with downloading the FINA Masters Championship Qualifying Times. Therefore, I will attempt to attach the PDF file. But the most direct link to the Qualifying times is Qualifying Times for Riccione

thanx ,Mary Once I happened to look under the heading >Nationals> in the Discussion Forums I found the qualifying times with no trouble at all. I did notice that some of them are faster than the Munich times, but I can still make all of the freestyle and IM times. See you in Riccione if not before.

Is anyone successfully working on travel plans to go to Riccione this June? It would seem from earlier posts on this thread and elsewhere that there are two main avenues to coordinate travel: 1) US-based travel agent Ann Lamberson at www.pvtapi.com There was a page on that web site as recently as last week which described the package they are working on for the trip, but today when I looked there was no mention of the FINA Masters meet there. 2) Booking directly with the local organizing committee at www.masters2004.it/accomodation.asp This seems to be a way to book your rooms once in Riccione. Was wondering if anyone out there was successfully humming along on making travel arrangements, and if so, any advice? Thanks.

About arrangements. I plan to be in Riccione for 5 nights and then travel with my family for a total of 14 days in Italy. I started out making my own arrangements, but went to AAA to check air fares. They were able to get a much lower fare than I could find on the internet. I ended up booking everything through AAA except the hotel in Riccione. I booked Riccione throught the Italian travel agency. They confirmed everything by email and I was able to go to the hotel's website to get an idea of what it is like. Actually, before booking any of my hotels, I was able to see each hotel on the internet. I've had a great time reading and planning this trip. Betsy Durrant

Does anyone know why they dropped the times so much? I was looking at the times from 02 and saw the 400 IM was 6:35, the 200 *** was 3:20, the 400 free was 5:50, the 200 IM 3:05. I would have qualified for all of them at my current times, but they droped them all 20 seconds plus. On the plus side, I have now qualified for three events, the 400 IM, 200 and 400 free, all within 0:0.06 this past weekend. I will be sending in my forms soon. I just think it's strange to drop that much time for all these events. There didn't seem to be that many people there. I do not know where I will be staying, but I will be ariving by motorcycle as I am flying into London 10 days before then. We should get together. Oh has anyone seen a way to pay by credit carrd? I would think that would be the easiest way.

Looks like it is finally possible to enter the 2004 FINA Masters Championships online and use a credit card. You need to have a jpg photo to attach. Go to: www.masters2004.it/entries.asp Too bad I already went to the trouble of obtaining a bank draft in Euros. Mary

Regarding accomodations, I ended up finding an apartment rental service in Riccione, who was able to secure me a two bedroom, two bath apartment within one km of the pool for ~610 Euro for the 10 days. We're going to be there for the full time, using Riccione as a home base and then taking day trips on days we aren't swimming. I don't have prior experience with the rental agency, but I have been pleased with their assistance and communication thus far. If anyone is interested in going the apartment-rental route, I used the Perazzini travel agency at www.perazzini.it/default_en.asp. Incidentally, I found them and other helpful information about the area at the local tourism board's web site, which is at www.turismo.provincia.rimini.it/.../. One other thing to chime in on is on wiring the money, vs. using a credit card. It looks like the organizers want the entry fee wired to them, and let me tell you, it is a bit of a pain (I had to look into wiring money overseas in order to pay the deposit on the apartment rental). Basically, you need to have a large bank do it for you -- my regular 'bank' is a credit union and they weren't up to the task. And, the fee is somewhere in the $25-$30 neighborhood to send an overseas wire. I ended up setting up a new bank account just to get this done. P.S. The "we" that will be travelling to Italy is me, a non-swimmer, and my 85 year old grandfather, who is the swimmer. I'm his personal valet for the journey, if you will. He totally kicks butt, and is looking forward to his first international swimming competition.

Originally posted by Matt S Edward, I think I can shed a little light on the QT's. It is not so much that the 04 QT's are fast; it is more a case of the 02 QT's were slow. If you want to compare apples to apples, take a look at the 00 Munich QT's. .. BTW, congratulations on making the cut! Excellent work, and always gratifying when you are close. If you want to impress your friends and neighbors, just tell them you qualified for Masters World Championships, and watch their eyes get big. Even though we know what that really means, it sure sounds like the Olympics to them. Matt Actually, that's what I thought, but wanted to make sure. My mother did think I was going to the Olympics this summer when I told her I wanted to swim in Italy. :D Actually now that I think about it it is my Olympics! I have worked hard, and now that I have paid will have to work harder to make sure I keep my times. For anyone else, I have just gotten through, was able to do all the registration and pay by credit card with no problems. I will still have to send in my paperwork I guess, my proof of age and copy of USMS card.

I have been trying to enter on-line, but after I enter my events, I get an error message in written in French!! So, I did e-mail the entries chairperson only to be told they do not have an error page written in French. Oh well, I then went to wire my entry fee over and my bank - told me I owed $93,745.00!! I told them that perhaps the decimal point is off and that $93.74 made more sense. The bank wanted me to call over to Italy to confirm the difference. I went to a bigger bank and also had to open an account in order for the money to be wired. I guess I will have to mail my entry because I can not get passed the French error message!! This has been an adventure!!

Edward, I think I can shed a little light on the QT's. It is not so much that the 04 QT's are fast; it is more a case of the 02 QT's were slow. Recall that the 02 Championships were in New Zealand. Because traveling to the meet was going to be much more of a limiting factor then than it is now to travel to Italy, there was less need to use QT's to keep the size of the meet down. I swapped emails with the New Zealand meet director at the time, and they were not terribly enthusiastic about having any QT's at all. Increasing the number of the participants was a bigger concern for them. So apperantly they got FINA to buy-off on QT's that were not much of a factor (and they still got hit with the post-Sept 11th drop off in travel). If you want to compare apples to apples, take a look at the 00 Munich QT's. I think you will find the 04 QT's are only a bit faster. If you can't find them on the web, I wrote down the QT's for my age group and events, so you can at least compare the free and fly events for Mens 35-39. BTW, congratulations on making the cut! Excellent work, and always gratifying when you are close. If you want to impress your friends and neighbors, just tell them you qualified for Masters World Championships, and watch their eyes get big. Even though we know what that really means, it sure sounds like the Olympics to them. Matt