In what could be the premiere international collegiate dual meet of the year, Great Britain’s Loughborough University will compete in a virtual dual meet with Canada’s University of Toronto, with plans for an in-person dual next year.
The meet will take place on Saturday, November 25, with each team swimming in their home nation. Times will be compared to put together a dual meet. Toronto already has a meet scheduled for the 25th, and it appears the team will use its times from the Fairweather Division Championships as its entries to the Loughborough dual. The Loughborough program will swim a mock meet during its training time that day.
The rosters, though not yet finalized, should be star-studded. Loughborough expects to include names like national record-smasher Jocelyn Ulyett, Marie Wattell and Charlotte Atkinson on its roster, and we’re told Toronto will include world record-holder Kylie Masse on its end.
Here’s a quick look at the proposed meet format:
- Short Course Meters
- Each team gets unlimited entries per individual event and can enter up to 2 relays per relay event
- Each swimmer can compete in up to 4 events and 2 relays
- The top 2 finishers from each team score points
- Scoring: 5-3-2-1 for individual events, 10-6-4-2 for relay
We’ve also been told that the programs would like to expand the event in future years, with the teams making the leap across the pond to swim each other in person in future seasons. 2018 would hypothetically see Toronto fly its top swimmers over to Great Britain for a meet, with Loughborough traveling to Canada in 2019, if travel details can come together.
The event was born out of some longstanding coaching connections between the two programs. Current Loughborough coach Andi Manley used to coach in Toronto, while now-Canadian coach Ben Titley jumped from Loughborough to Toronto in 2012.
We’ll continue to follow this event as official rosters are put forward and more details into the meet lineup emerge.
This ought to be interesting….