Viewer’s Notes: USA Swimming Posts Pre-Scratch Timeline for Charlotte Grand Prix

USA Swimming has published the pre-scratch timeline for both Thursday’s timed finals session, as well as the prelims sessions throughout the week at the Charlotte Grand Prix.

While the addition of the 50 meter stroke events will add a little bit of length to the prelims sessions as compared to the other Grand Prixs that don’t have them (about 25 minutes for each stroke, men and women combined), but that is counteracted by Charlotte using a “Flight system” for the morning heats.

Basically, the fastest X number of heats per event (which is 7 for most races, but 5 for the 400 meter races), will swim in the “A” flights that begin at 9AM. After that, the rest of the heats will swim – which in some cases is up to 19 more heats in the men’s 200 free, for example. Those 19 extra heats will eat up at least 45 minutes, just from that race alone.

Note that once night-before scratches are in, these timelines will likely change slightly, so if there’s a race you can’t miss, plan to tune in a little early.

Timeline Summary:

• Michael Phelps will race in the heats of the 200 free at approximately 9:20 AM Eastern Time, and the 100 fly at approximately 10:30 AM Eastern Time.
• Thursday’s timed finals will begin at 4PM Eastern Time and run until 7:06 PM Eastern Time.
• Friday’s A-flight prelims will begin at 9AM Eastern Time and run until 11:41 AM Eastern Time. The B-flight will run from 11:41 AM until 3:45 PM.
• Saturday’s A-flight prelims will begin at 9AM and run until 1:55 AM. The B-Flight will run from 11:55 AM until 3:42 PM
• Sunday’s A-flight prelims will begin at 9AM and run until 10:32 AM. The B-Flight will run from 10:32 AM until 1:24 PM.
• Timed finals heats of the women’s 800 and men’s 1500 will begin on Snday at 1:24 PM and run until 4:51 PM.

See the full, detailed timeline here.
See a full list of links to follow the meet, including live video, here.