Amendments have been made to the rules for the European Junior Open Water Championships, which will likely take place in Hoom, Netherlands from July 11th-17th. That is the location of the European Open Water Championships, and it is expected that the Junior and Masters competitions will take place at the same time and place.
Among the new rules are age groups, distances, and relay criteria. The age groups will now be broken down into 14-15, 16-17, and 18-19 for both boys and girls. One’s age is determined based off their age on December 31st of that year, not necessarily their age at the time of competition.
The 14-15 year old swimmers will race 5km, the 16-17 group will go 7.5km and the 18-19 swimmers will race 10km. The 14-15 and 16-17 events will take place on day 1, and the 18-19 on day two.
Day three will feature the relay events, which are broken into two categories: 14-16 and U19. Each team consists of 2 males and 2 females, and each swimmer must complete a lap of 1.25km each. Like the mixed relays we saw at the World Championships in Kazan, swimmers can go in any order. The swimmers must physically touch when making relay exchanges.
Find the full outline of all rules on the LEN website here.