A proposal has been put forth in Canada to institute (optional at the request of the LOC and subject to MSC approval) qualifying times for championship events. To date we have never used qualifying times but in a couple cases registration limits were set, I can only think of one nationals where the limit was actually reached.
The proposal exempts the 50 and 100 events from qualifying times so anyone can enter if they only participate in these and relays. As I understand it USMS allows people who don't have qualifying times to enter three events without restricting which events those can be. USMS also has the drop the sixth event system which can be used if the timeline looks to be too long.
It seems to me that restricting slower people to the 50 and 100m events is not going to go over well with distance oriented people. On the practical side you clearly reduce the timeline more by eliminating slow people from the distance events versus the sprints, although if they enter six short events instead of three longer events the effect is less.
It seems to me that the USMS sixth event system is the best first step for dealing with limited capacity.
Based on experience with USMS nationals, what do you think of the proposed approach?
I haven't had the pleasure of competing in a USM meet yet, but as soon as a meet in the Texas area happens during one of my vacation visits I plan on it.
Our nationals are open to everyone, but that is because we don't have too many that come, and we don't offer the 1500, 200 of any stroke (only 200 IM) it's 4 sessions friday night to sunday morning.
but one thing we have around here with the age groupers, that I found interesting, is if you qualify in one of the 50-100-200 events you can swim all three. same with IM, 100-200-400. if you qualify in 400-800-1500 you can swim all three,but there is a max number of heats in the 800 and 1500. I think this year it is max 3 heats, unless more heats are required to satisfy all who have qualified.
I haven't had the pleasure of competing in a USM meet yet, but as soon as a meet in the Texas area happens during one of my vacation visits I plan on it.
Our nationals are open to everyone, but that is because we don't have too many that come, and we don't offer the 1500, 200 of any stroke (only 200 IM) it's 4 sessions friday night to sunday morning.
but one thing we have around here with the age groupers, that I found interesting, is if you qualify in one of the 50-100-200 events you can swim all three. same with IM, 100-200-400. if you qualify in 400-800-1500 you can swim all three,but there is a max number of heats in the 800 and 1500. I think this year it is max 3 heats, unless more heats are required to satisfy all who have qualified.
