Entry Information

Cost and Entry Dates

Entry Opening Date

Wednesday 6th October 2021

Entry Closing Date

Student / Competitor Deadline: Tuesday 26th October 2021 at 23:59

(Students / Competitors must apply by this deadline)

Institution Administrator Deadline: Thursday 28th October 2021 at 23:59

(Institutional Administrators are given 48 hours after the student / competitor deadline to approve entries)

This competition will NOT operate a staged entry process. As such, please ensure all entries are submitted through BUCS Play prior to the closing date listed above. 

Entry Costs

Individual Events: £14.75

Relay Events: £27.00

Events and Competition Format

50m Freestyle (Men’s and Women’s)
100m Freestyle (Men’s and Women’s)
200m Freestyle (Men’s and Women’s)
400m Freestyle (Men’s and Women’s)
800m Freestyle (Men’s and Women’s)
1500m Freestyle (Men’s and Women’s)
50m Breaststroke (Men’s and Women’s)
100m Breaststroke (Men’s and Women’s)
200m Breaststroke (Men’s and Women’s)
50m Butterfly (Men’s and Women’s)
100m Butterfly (Men’s and Women’s)
200m Butterfly (Men’s and Women’s)
50m Backstroke (Men’s and Women’s)
100m Backstroke (Men’s and Women’s)
200m Backstroke (Men’s and Women’s)
200m Individual Medley (Men’s and Women’s)
400m Individual Medley (Men’s and Women’s)
4 x 50m Freestyle Relay (Men’s and Women’s)
4 x 50m Medley Relay (Men’s and Women’s)
4 x 50m Mixed Medley Relay (Mixed)

The Top 20 entrants for the Men's and Women's 800m and 1500m will be accepted.

For the 800m and 1500m entry times will be verified via National Rankings for validity and may be rejected if validity cannot be approved. 

The Top 10 swimmers/teams will advance to A finals following the heats and where there are B finals these will be made up of swimmers/teams ranked 11-20 from the heats.

The Top 3 swimmers of each event will receive medals.

Entry Allowance

Ponds Forge are currently have a capacity in place in the pool hall at any one time. 

Institutions will be permitted to have 2 guaranteed entrants per event. All para-athletes will be guaranteed entry.

Should COVID capacities allow, non-guaranteed entrants will be given a place based on their times submitted on entry, regardless of their institution. The fastest times will be permitted entry first, through to the slowest. Except in the 800m Freestyle and 1500m Freestyle where only the top 20 entrants based on verified entry times will be accepted.

Institution Administrators- Please allocate para-swimmers under the ‘non-guaranteed’ category and we will enter them regardless.

There is no limit on how many events an individual can enter, however competitors are advised to check the provisional programme of events which can be downloaded from the BUCS website before entering to make sure they have time to recover from one race to the next. Please note: During heats, all men’s events are swum back to back in one pool and all women’s events back to back in the other pool.

The BUCS Events team reserve the right to restrict entries to ensure the event runs within the Ponds Forge COVID capacity and the session length.

IMPORTANT- After you have swum your event please vacate the pool hall before the next session. You should only be in the pool hall for the session your event is in. This is due to COVID capacity limits at Ponds Forge. 

N.B. Competitors that wish to be on the British Swimming rankings based on their performance at Speedo and BUCS Short Course Swimming Championships must complete the 'Swimming Membership Number' section on entry

Speedo & BUCS Short Course Swimming Championships 2021 will be unable to accept guest entrants due to COVID capacity restrictions

Para Swimmer Entrants

Para-swimmers can enter any events, however the following list (in line with events currently being swum in Great Britain for para-swimmers) are recognised events for para-swimmers. As such, eligible entrants in these events can, subject to competitor numbers, earn BUCS Points, BUCS Medals and Swimming Event Points, as part of multi-classification extracted results using British Para-Swimming Points.

Event                                       Eligible classifications

50m Freestyle                            S1-S13
100m Freestyle                          S1-S14
200m Freestyle                          S1-S5 & S14
400m Freestyle                          S6-S14
50m Backstroke                         S1-S5
100m Backstroke                       S1, S2 & S6-S14
50m Breaststroke                      SB1-SB3
100m Breaststroke                    SB4-SB9, SB11-SB14
50m Butterfly                             S1-S7
100m Butterfly                           S8-S14
200m Individual Medley         SM5-SM14

Para-swimmers please note that in line with World Para Swimming Rules and Regulations (Regulation 5.1.2) that any World Record swims will not be recognised at BUCS Short Course Swimming Championships.

If you have any specific requirements for competiting e.g. Strobe lights, use of 'tappers' etc. please advise Liv Hellas in advance of the event.

Any swimmer requiring the use of tapping devices, blackened goggles or starting devices MUST have these signed off at the Technical Briefing in order for them to be used during the Championships.

S15 athletes are eligible to enter all individual events and will be awarded BUCS medals and points based on Regulation 6.1.2.

Entry Process

To apply for this competiton:

1. Competitor to complete competition application on BUCS Play 

2. Institution administrator approves entry

3. BUCS approves/denies entry into competition and publishes confirmed entry list. 

Any data will be held in accordance with the BUCS Privacy Policy

By participating in this event you agree to adhere to BUCS General Event Disclaimer 

To check whether you are eligible to compete in BUCS competitions, please visit BUCS Individual Eligibility REG 4

Please note: For relays, complete step 1 above. A minimum of 4 competitors must apply for each relay. The Institution Administrator must then select 4 competitors to form the ‘Squad’. These do not have to be the final squad, relay declarations will be completed at the competition. Students applying for the Team should input the TEAM PB as an entry time, NOT their individual split time. 

These individuals can be changed for other swimmers entered elsewhere in the competition on BUCS Play when submitting your relay declaration form at the Championships. If you have swimmers who will only participate in relays these individuals must be listed in a relay entry on BUCS Play.

No entries will be accepted after the entry closing deadline under any circumstances. If a competitor experiences issues entering via the BUCS Play app before the deadline of Tuesday 26th October this must be reported through [email protected] . Any issues that have not been brought to BUCS’ attention before this deadline will not be considered for entry.

Institution Administrators: You must ensure all events have been checked for applied competitors before the IA deadline.

Furthermore, after entries have closed no refunds will be given for withdrawals. This applies regardless of the reason for a withdrawal.

Entry Times

Entry times MUST be submitted for all events. These should be Short Course times or conversions from Long Course times. Please write the PB in number format as follows. For example: 022159 – represents 2 minutes, 21 seconds and 59 milliseconds). Any entries made putting 000000 (or any other zero time format) will be rejected. If you do not have an official time please submit a time trial time – This includes relay entries.

For team relay times ensure you enter the team PB on entry for that competition, not your own individual PB.

Please note the following entry times that swimmers must have achieved for the Distance Freestyle Events:

Women's 800m Freestyle – 10Min 30Sec 00Ms

Men’s 800m Freestyle – 09Min 45sec 00Ms

Women’s 1500m Freestyle – 19Min 30Sec 00Ms

Men's 1500m Freestyle – 18Min 30Sec 00Ms

Women’s 400m Freestyle – 06Min 00Sec 00Ms

Men’s 400m Freestyle – 05Min 30Sec 00Ms

Please note that your entry time submitted for events with a qualification standard must have been achieved in a competitive environment in the last 36 months prior to the competition and may be verified against British Swimming/World Para Swimming rankings. You may also be asked to verify your time on request prior to or at the event. Failure to prove your entry time may mean that you are not able to participate in the event.

Entries by swimmers (including para-swimmers) with times outside of these times will be rejected.

WARNING - Any swimmer finishing excessively outside the above times will be asked to prove their entry time legitimacy and if this cannot be proven then these individuals may face disciplinary action or a fine as outlined in the pre-event information.

BUCS Points

BUCS Points will be awarded as per Appendix 1.

BUCS points will be awarded to the top 4 swimmers/teams for eligible events. Note that only the top 2 swimmers from each institution or 1 team per institution for relay events will score points. 

BUCS Points will now be awarded for the 4x50m Mixed Medley Relay

Please note that BUCS points will not be allocated where the minimum number of competitors/teams has not been reached, or where there are not enough individual scores to extract a team score. Furthermore, an individual/team must have beaten another individual/team to score BUCS Points (i.e. if 3 individuals/teams compete in an event, only 2 will score BUCS points). This does not apply to extracted teams. Individuals/teams are regarded as having competed if they started the event, therefore DNS will not be regarded as having competed.

Entry Checks

A list of entries for checking will be found on the 'Entry Checking' tab in due course. Please follow the steps outlined here to report incorrect entries.

Any changes to entry information are subject to a £10 admin fee.

Please note: No late entries under any circumstances can be accepted.

Any requests for changes made at the event are also not guaranteed and will be subject to an admin charge of £20 per change which must be paid in cash at the event at the time the change is requested.

Substitutions

Please note you will only be able to request substitute swimmers for other swimmers who become unable to swim their event(s) after the closing date if they are named swimmers from your accepted submitted entries. Substitutions are only accepted up until Friday 12th November 2021, after which only medical substitutions are permitted if accompanied by a medical note.

Governing Body Registration and Rankings

Being registered with a governing body is not a requirement to compete in the BUCS Swimming Championships. However, registered swimmers who wish for their times to be submitted for ranking purposes must ensure that they provide their governing body number when registering on BUCS Play, as well as checking that the name and date of birth matches that on your governing body registration. For para-swimmers to be eligible for disability points and awards they must be Nationally/Internationally classified and have a current governing body registration to validate their entry as well as fulfilling the above. Governing body numbers must be provided at the point of entry.

Entry Checking

A confirmed entry list can be found here

Rejected Entries, Reserve Lists (800m and 1500m) and a List of Possible Incorrect Entries Times can be downloaded below.