Recording Wrap Up 2021

With 2021 coming to an end, the finalisation of results and records continues as we head into the New Year. What a year – some great meets were held with some very big numbers competing. There were also plenty of records broken including three relay world records. Unfortunately, even though it seemed like a very busy year of meets, there were still some cancellations due to COVID-19 restrictions. We were far more fortunate up here in Queensland than many others around the country with very few meets.

In this wrap-up we’ll give you a view into next year’s competition, some new approaches being trialled, some procedural reminders and a brief look back at 2021.

 

Competition Swimwear

To get started we need to quickly mention the topic of multiple pieces of swimwear. At recent meets it has been observed numbers of times people wearing multiple pieces of swimwear in races. This is a reminder to all competitive swimmers, including those doing timed postal swims. Swimmers must wear only one pair of FINA approved swimwear in competition. An additional item(s) of swimwear may not be worn under another while competing or time-trialling. You could be DQ’d.

 

2022 Meet Calendar

The 2022 calendar is huge! There are already 20 pool meets and three open water swims, and the co-sanctioned meets haven’t even been listed yet. There are 14 local interclub meets, State Championships in Cairns, National Championships in Sydney and a choice of four games meets in Australia and other parts of the world.

Co-sanctioned meets allow some of our more competitive swimmers to compete at Swimming Australia events. There are two ways to enter these meets. If you are in a One-Club where the junior club and the Masters club are affiliated together, you can enter as the junior club and have your results recognised on the MSA National Portal. The second way is to simply join a junior club not related to a Masters club and compete, however these results will not be recognised by the MSA National Portal. Contact myself or MSQ if you would like more details, or see the Entering a Swim Meet page of the MSQ website.

 

Preparation Meets and Increased Flexibility

In 2022 Team UQ will be running their March meet in Preparation mode. The emphasis will be taken off accumulating individual points to win age categories and focussed more on the events a swimmer wants to do in preparation for the upcoming major meets. This will see the first Masters meet offering pay per event meet fees, and with a relaxation of the number of events restrictions. You will pay only for the events you swim in, and are able to enter more than the usual five or six events limit, or maybe just one event. Across a number of the earlier meets there will be another Fins Freestyle trial event, 6×50 relays and Skins events. I am sure other meets will have something out of the usual planned too. It is great to see clubs looking to do something new and fresh.

 

Quick Entry meet entry system

Some people across the year have had a few challenges entering meets with Quick Entry. However, many have no issues at all. Here are some notes for you to consider when entering an interclub meet via Quick Entry to maximise your chance of success:

• Quick Entry requires each meet entrant to register an account. This account is separate to the account you have registered with MSA to manager your annual membership. Please ensure you enter your personal details accurately or your results may not be registered correctly in the National Portal.
• It is preferable that each person manages and operates their own account, rather than having someone else create and operate it. A better approach is to assist someone to learn how to use the system, make payment, and retain their password. Just sit with them and take some notes. There is a guide here.
• Quick Entry will require you to pay via either PayPal or Credit Card. PayPal is preferable as you only need to log into your PayPal account to make payment. However, there is a Credit Card option on the PayPal login page allowing you to make one-time credit card payments. This is a little more complex requiring you to enter more personal details each time.
• Determine the events you are going to enter early, check them, then enter them all in one go. If you are not choosing your PB time, enter your time correctly as it is currently not possible to change it after the entry has been processed. So get your entries right the first time and check them before submitting. Please pay the same time you enter and submit your entries – all one transaction. This helps reduce potential problems.
• Much of our time is spent fixing incorrectly formatted, typed-in entry times. When selecting your events, you will get the choice to select your PB, or a recent result. In addition, you will mostly be given the opportunity to manually enter a time. When doing so, please enter times in the correct format:
  • Twenty-eight point five nine seconds is 28.59 (not 2859 or 28:59)
  • One minute forty-five point two seven seconds is 1:45.72 (not 14572 or 1.45 or 1.45.72 or 1:45:72)
  • Please note there can only be a colon between the minutes and seconds :
  • Please note there can only be a decimal point between the seconds and fractions of a second .
  • Please do not use any other characters, or leave these characters out
• Please enter accurate times and not a time you think will put you in a slower or faster heat. Meet planning revolves around the Timeline Report produced once all entries have been received. Inaccurate times have the potential to produce inaccurate finish times causing problems for the meet organiser. The best time to enter is your PB from the past two years. Please give the meet a chance at running an accurate timeline, and that will help organisers and swimmers plan the day better for you. Accurate times also helps people race better – no good if someone shoots ahead or lags behind. Competitive swimming is about racing in well seeded heats at the standard you have raced to achieve previously.
• Please avoid entering on the last couple of days before the closing date. If you are having issues with Quick Entry, or your MSA membership, we will have more time to help you sort it out.
• Note the closing date so that you expect a draft Entry List report to be sent to entrants or placed on the MSQ event page for the meet. This is your only opportunity to check your entries and make changes to any errors. This is not a chance for you to change your mind.
• Quick Entry can be used on a smart phone, but you will probably need to hold the phone in landscape to see the left menus. The preferred way to use Quick Entry is a computer. If something is not working using a phone, try a computer.
• Club Captains and club representative will receive meet and entry details from time to time via email. Please ensure you forward these messages on to your members. Even if they are not listed in an Entry List, they may have entered but did not appear due to a system glitch. You are a very important communication point for meet entrants.
• We are volunteers and may not always be able to assist. Please do all you can to help us and yourselves by following these and other guidelines. There may be occasions that we too are very busy and cannot help you due to an overwhelming number of issues with meet entries. We also like to compete and appreciate correct entries to reduce the time consumed beforehand, and on the day addressing problems.

More details can be found on the Entering a Swim Meet page of the MSQ website.

 

Tips for Meet organisers

• Get sanction applications in on time – have a description ready of what you are planning and what you want to achieve
• Get meet details to Christina early – this promotion helps get people interested in your meet
• Get photos and summary to Christina after your meet – this helps people realise it was a good meet and get interested for next time
• Entries open in Quick Entry four (4) weeks prior to close. Promotion can start well in advance of this date if organised.
• Entries close two (2) Tuesdays prior to the meet date
• The Draft Entry List will be available within two days of the meet closing date
• Changes will be accepted by the Friday following the close only
• Relay entries (if offering relays) close the Friday following the individual close
• Entries are final on the Saturday one (1) week prior to the meet date
• Informing for records – if you do not have enough timekeepers to cover record attempts, please make your meet a time trial where records cannot be broken. Swimmers are not required to inform anyone that they may break a record. You need a minimum of two (2) timekeepers per lane for records to be recognised.

For detailed information on hosting swim meets, please see the guides on our website.  I have also provided a ‘MSQ Recording Quick Reference Guide – Hosting a Meet’. If there are any Recorders out there who would like anything added or to join the discussion, please let me know.

As I have stated before, competition is a major aspect of Masters swimming and it takes considerable time behind the scenes for MSQ and our host clubs. The process has some very technical aspects, but we are working hard to make it simpler and quicker to perform the simple task of entering a meet.

 

Looking back at 2021 meet highlights

Thank you to all who were a part of running a meet in Queensland. Let’s hope for even better meets in 2022. There were too many great experiences at meets this year to mention them all. Entrant numbers were well up on previous years and we had good visitor numbers for State Championships and GBRMG. The following details are just a small snapshot of what was a very successful year for MSQ swim meets:

• Palm Beach Masters – first Preparation Meet trialed by MSQ
• MSQ State Championship – 4^th largest Masters’ meet in recent history held in Queensland – over 300 entrants
• GBRMG – 5^th largest Masters’ meet in recent history held in Queensland – double previous numbers – over 280 entrants
• Brisbane Southside Masters Short Course – largest interclub meet held, potentially nationwide, rivaling States and Nationals – over 260 entrants. A relay world record set.
• All regional and OWS meets showing increases in attendance, some with quite a significant increase
• Belgravia and Rackley held their first meets with great numbers
• Miami Masters Relay meet – 2 world records, 13 national records, 18 Queensland records
• Total records processed – 169 Queensland, 63 Australian, 3 World, and 260 Great Barrier Reef records

If you have questions or feedback, please contact your region’s VP, or have a chat with myself or Christina.

Happy New Year and see you at a meet in 2022!

 

Martin Banks

MSQ Director Recording