Swimming Long Course Championships '23-'24 (BUCS Nationals)

Friday 23 – Sunday 25 February 2024

Ponds Forge International Sports Centre

Sheaf Street, Sheffield, S1 2BP

Tuesday 23 January 2024 at 11:59pm – Student/Competitor Deadline

(Students/Competitors must apply by this deadline)

Thursday 25 January 2024 at 11:59pm – Institution Administrator Approval Deadline

(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.

Individual events: £16.45

Relay events: £31.70

Individual & Relay Events Open/Male & Female:

50m Freestyle
100m Freestyle
200m Freestyle
400m Freestyle*
800m Freestyle**
1500m Freestyle**
50m Breaststroke
100m Breaststroke
200m Breaststroke
50m Butterfly
100m Butterfly
200m Butterfly
50m Backstroke
100m Backstroke
200m Backstroke
200m Individual Medley
400m Individual Medley*
4 x 100m Freestyle Relay
4 x 100m Medley Relay

Mixed Events:

4 x 100m Mixed Medley Relay

*Entry Qualifying Time (EQT) applies
** Entry Qualifying Time applies & the top 30 entrants will be accepted (800m & 1500m
Free).  Entry times will be verified by Swim England rankings for validity and may be rejected if validity cannot be proven. 

The BUCS Long Course Swimming Championships 2024 are required to adhere to the Swim England Transgender policy. As such, the categories available shall be ‘Open’ and ‘Female’. For more information, please see the Swim England Transgender Policy.

The Female category is for birth sex females in accordance with Swim England’s Transgender and Non-Binary Competition Policy. By entering the ‘Female’ category, a swimmer confirms that their birth sex is female.

The BUCS category Open will be defined as Open/Male as is commonplace in all swimming events in the UK.

Heats
Heats will be swum in two sessions, fastest heats first followed by the remaining heats. The exact split will be determined by the overall number of entries and will be advised in the Event Information.
HDW events will have their fastest heat in the final session.
For the 800 & 1500 the second fastest heat will be swum with the fastest heats and the third fastest heat will be swum in the remaining heats session.

Finals
There will be A & B finals for all 50, 100 and 200m Events.
The top 10 swimmers/teams will advance to A finals and the next 10 to the B final.
Guest entrants may not progress to a final.

The top three swimmers/teams in each event including Para Events will receive medals according to the BUCS medal policy.

Awards will be made to the Open/Male and Female Top Performers & Open and Female Top Para Swimmer Performers.

Institutions will score ‘Swimming Points’ and will be ranked and awards will be made to the highest ranked Open/Male Team, Female Team & Overall Team.

Para Teams will be ranked and an overall list will be published.

Each institution may enter up to:
Three competitors per individual event.
Two teams in each relay event.

All entrants are limited to three individual events.

In individual events all entrants must meet the consideration/entry qualifying times for the event they are entering. Entries outside of these will be rejected.

Entry times will be verified at the championships where any swimmer fails to achieve the consideration/entry time for an event. Should any swimmer be found not to have achieved their entry time in the 12 months prior to the event they will be liable to a fine.

For the 800m and 1500m Freestyle the top 30 entry times will be accepted. A reserve list will be published for these events, and updated if withdrawals occur, with the final announcement made on Thursday 22 February.

If you are listed on the reserve list and decide you will not want to swim if you reach the top of the list you must withdraw.

Long course entry times MUST be submitted for all events.

Conversions from short course are permitted.

Times must have been achieved in the last 12 months.  

Time trials may be used for relay entry times.

Swimmers’ entry times MUST times be inside the long course consideration time or entry qualification time for the relevant event. Entries outside of these times will be automatically rejected.

Consideration Times

Please see below a list of Long Course consideration times for each event.

Entry Qualifying Times
Please note the following long course entry times that swimmers must have achieved for the following events:

Failure to finish inside of Qualifying Time will result in a fine.

Entry Time Format on BUCS Play
Please type the Entry Time in number format as follows. For example: 02:21.59 – represents 2 minutes, 21 seconds and 59 milliseconds. Any entries made putting 000000 (or any other zero time format) will be rejected.

Para Entry Qualifying Time – 400 Freestyle
Entry times for para-swimmers for applicable categories:

Specific Requirements:

If you have any specific requirements for competing e.g. Strobe lights, use of 'tappers' etc. please advise Joseph Gallimore 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 for them to be used during the Championships.

National Records can be recognised at this event. European and World Records will not be recognised.

Institutions may enter up to one S15 swimmer per gender per event.  S15 swimmers are eligible to enter any event and earn BUCS medals and points as per current policy but must meet the entry consideration and qualification times of non-para swimmers and have the same three event restriction.

A secondary strobe light will be available for athletes with a hearing impairment.

If the championships are not oversubscribed BUCS has the right to accept guest entries from individuals not from BUCS member institutions that meet the following criteria:

The swimmer is aiming for selection on a national team; and/or

The relevant National Governing Body submits the entry; and

BUCS receives the entry form and fee by the closing date.

Guest entrants may only compete in three individual events in heats only and may not progress to the finals.

BUCS member institutions may not have guest entries, any of their students must swim as part of their team’s entry allowance (see above).

British Swimming will be emailing out separate information relating to guest swimmers on their elite swimming list in due course. For information on how to enter as a Guest on BUCS Play, please read the how-to guide here. 

Guest entries may be limited where the event is at capacity.

Being registered with a governing body is not a requirement (unless a para-swimmer as classification is required) to compete in the BUCS Swimming Championships. However, registered swimmers of Swim England, Scottish Swimming or Swim Wales 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. e.g. if your name is ‘Jessica’, please ensure you are not set up on BUCS Play as ‘Jess’ as when your times are submitted, they will not be matched to your governing body membership.

To apply for the competition all eligible competitors must follow these steps.

1. Competitor to complete competition application on BUCS Play.
2. Institution administrator approves entry.
3. BUCS approves/denies entry into competition and publishes confirms entry list.

Any data will be handled in accordance with BUCS Privacy Policy.

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

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

Please note: For relays, the Institution Administrator is responsible for applying for relay competitions. A student is not able to join a team until their Institution Administrator has entered a team to the competition. 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. Swimmers who have not entered on BUCS Play will not be eligible to race.

For help on how to enter a team competition, please click here.

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 23 January 2024 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.

Guaranteed is for able bodied and S15 swimmers – you are limited to 3 individuals per event. Please note that Guaranteed entries are still subject to the Entry Qualifying Time and the Consideration Time, and therefore may be rejected. Students accepted into Non-Guaranteed should only be para swimmers.  

Incorrect and invalid entries will be rejected.
Entries which are outside the consideration/entry time for an event will be automatically rejected on entry.

It may become necessary to restrict entries if the entries exceed capacity. If required, these rejections will be made after the closing date at the discretion of the BUCS Swimming Event Team. Should it be necessary to restrict entries, accepted entries will be prioritised based on entry time and on a session-by-session basis.

The entry lists will be published on the BUCS website by Monday 12 February 2024 for checking. All entries MUST be checked, with errors you wish to be corrected being reported by your Athletic Union prior to the deadline of 5:00pm Wednesday 21 February 2024 to Joseph Gallimore

Please note: Any requests for changes to the data submitted on BUCS Play may be possible but will be subject to an admin charge of £10 per change prior to the event. Any requests for changes made at the event will NOT be accepted.

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 16 February 2024, after which only medical substitutions are permitted if accompanied by a medical note.

Please see BUCS Rules and Regulations Appendix 1 to see the BUCS Points available.

BUCS Points are only available for A finals and are limited to 2 swimmers per institution in individual events and 1 team per institution in relay events.

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 compete if they started the event, therefore DNS will not be regarded as having competed.

Similarly, medals will be awarded according to the accrual of BUCS Points. For example if only 3 individuals/teams compete in an event only Gold and Silver medals will be awarded.

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.

After entries have closed no refunds will be given for withdrawals.

Withdrawals can be made up until 5pm Wednesday 21 February 2024.

There will be fines for late withdrawals or failing to swim in heats or finals. Details of these fines will be in the Event Guide.

If you are having any problems with the BUCS Play app please contact BUCS app support.