Open Meets

Open Galas:-

These are galas designed for the individual swimmer, although they will still swim under their clubs name. There is a fee payable (by the swimmer) for each event entered - around £3.00 to £5.00) per event.

Open meets have four tiers of structured competition and are licensed according to the purpose of their competition as Level 1,2,3 and 4.

Level 1 is aimed at National qualifiers, or swimmers close the National qualification, looking for opportunities to achieve National qualifying times.

Level 2 is aimed at Midland District qualifiers.

Level 3 is for Club swimmers who are looking for County qualifying times.

Level 4 is for Club swimmers who are just beginning competition.

Each level has ‘qualifying times’ - which may include an upper limit (a swimmer cannot have produced a time faster than this) and/or a lower limit (a swimmer cannot have achieved a time faster than this)

Swimmers are ‘seeded’ according to their entry times - which means they will swim against others of the same ability regardless of age.

Results are determined either by finals (in age groups) or by the fastest swims in the heats (called heat declared).

There are usually trophies and/or medals for the top three or six in each age group.

Note: - each age group could mean 14/U not necessarily single age groups.

Why do opens?

This is a way swimmers can compete at longer distances or at a stroke they are not normally chosen to do by the club. It is also a chance to improve on their personal performance. (Licensed meets from levels 1,2 and 3 use computerised results service to enable data to go into the national ranking system. You can check your rankings if you have competed in one of these on the British Swimming website at www.britishswimming.org - under swimming-rankings, you will need your ASA Registration number for this). A swimmer is not chosen to compete in opens but the club does recommend certain galas and would like swimmers to support these.

Please check this web-site, newsletters and the notice-board frequently as details of ‘open meets’ will appear on a regular basis.