After pulling out of the North American Challenge Cup going forward, Swimming Canada has announced a new East vs. West, short course meters, youth dual meet for 2014, that will pit some of its best young swimmers together in a dual meet format.
Each team will consist of 48 swimmers: 24 boys and 24 girls. They will be from two age categories: Youth (16-17 boys, 15-16 girls) and Prospects (15 & under boys, 14 & under girls), and will be chosen by the lead coaches for each team based on performances between September 1st, 2013 and March 16th, 2014.
Swimmers will be selected based on the ability to swim multiple events at a high level, as smaller teams will require versatility from swimmers.
The meet will take place in Manitoba, Winnipeg in the pool built for the 1999 Pan American Games. The Eastern team lead coach is Dean Boles, who is the provincial mentor coach at Swim Ontario. The west coach hasn’t yet been named.
The Western team will be made of the best swimmers from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, while the Eastern team will be made of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward Island.
The east team holds about 69% of the country’s population.
More details of the meet can be seen here.
Meet Format
SCM Timed Finals
Warm up: 3:00 – 4:30 PM
Competition: 4:30 PM
Entries: Maximum of 2 scoring swimmers per team per event and 2 relay teams per team per
relay event.
Teams may enter exhibition swimmers to fill in empty lanes.
Scoring: Individual: 4 places – 10-6-3-1
Relays: 4 places – 20-15-10-5
Awards: Women’s and Men’s Team Points Award TBD
* 8×50 Mixed Free Relay – Teams will be comprised of 2 male and 2 female swimmers from each age
category. There will be a maximum of 2 relay teams per Team. This will be a scoring event.
Canadian National Junior Coach, Ken McKinnon details the change and need for change on my podcast: http://coachmikepodcast.podbean.com/2013/07/15/coachmikepodcast-episode-48/