Courtesy: British Swimming
British Swimming has today outlined its selection policy for the 2021 European Junior Championships, which will take place in Rome this summer.
The event, which is planned to take place outdoors from 6th – 11th July, will be the first significant meet for junior athletes in almost two years, with the global pandemic bringing to halt the 2020 season.
Following consultation with the Home Nations’ Performance Leads and a number of key club coaches, we have chosen to focus all of our efforts on supporting a team to compete in Italy. For that reason, and in line with budget considerations, amongst other concerns, we will not be sending a team to compete at the World Junior Championships in Kazan in August.
The European Junior team, which has up to 24 places available, will be selected from long course performances listed on the British rankings (www.swimmingresults.org ) from 1st January 2021 to 9th June 2021 (inclusive).
British Swimming’s Head of Elite Development, Tim Jones, explained:
“This has not been an easy decision for us, particularly given that so many athletes are only just beginning to return to the water. That said, the feedback from representatives of the coaching fraternity was loud, in that we should be pulling out all of the stops to be at this event, even though we acknowledge the limited preparations the team will have.
“That being said, we are well aware of the important role British Swimming and the Home Nations have in continuing to provide hope for those young swimmers who aspire to perform at junior international level. With the next Olympic cycle being one year shorter than normal, we all believe that focussing our efforts on the European event is the safest but most productive and achievable option. The ongoing work around the domestic end of season Festival of Swimming will also support this.
“We are hopeful, and doing everything we can, to enable British juniors to access racing opportunities ahead of selection in early June”.
The full selection policy can be seen on the 2021 Selection Policies page.
Personally, I’m prepared to support British Swimming in pretty much everything they do – because they’re excellent – but the fact that the selection is based on the Olympic events (which for some unexplainable reason excludes three 50m events) just leaves a bad taste in my mouth…
And just in case someone didn’t comprehend the critique above; imagine being a Flyer, Backstroker, or Breaststroker specialising in 50m events and being confined to selection criteria where those skills were disregarded because those very events are NOT on the schedule in a DIFFERENT competition. Get it…?