Swimming & Para Swimming: Short Course Championships 2022-23

Entry Opening Date

Tuesday 27th September 2022

Entry Closing Date

Student / Competitor Deadline: Tuesday 25th October 2022 at 23:59

(Students / Competitors must apply by this deadline)

Institution Administrator Deadline: Thursday 27th October 2022 at 23:59

(Instituation Administrators are given 48 hours after the studet / 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: £14.95

Relay Events: £27.20

*Entries fees have increased by 20p to cover additional administrative charges in association with British Swimming

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)
100m Individual Medley (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 all-time 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.

Individuals may enter up to a maximum of four individual events.

Please review the Programme of Events when making entries. This is a two pool event meaning that 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 fastest few heats of each event (exact number TBC) will be swum in a block at the start of each heat’s session. Please consider this when making your entries.

Due to venue warm up restrictions it may become necessary to restrict entries. If necessary, rejections will be made after the closing date for entry.

Should it be necessary to restrict entries; one entry per institution will be guaranteed in each event with the exception of the 800m Freestyle and 1500m Freestyle where only the top 20 entrants based on verified entry times will be accepted. Entries will only be guaranteed if they meet the event qualifying times or standard times. Note that these may be subject to verification.

Any rejections will be made fairly at the discretion of the BUCS Swimming Event Team in order to meet the venue warm up restrictions.

Please note: Competitors that wish to be on the British Swimming rankings based on their performance at BUCS Short Course Swimming Championships must complete the 'Swimming Membership Number' section on entry.

Institution Administrators - Please allocate para-swimmers under the ‘non-guaranteed’ category.

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

100m Individual Medley             SM5-SM13

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 competing e.g. Strobe lights, use of 'tappers' etc. please advise Erin Simmonds 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.

Any SB15 swimmers are eligible to ewnter any event as per Appendix 1.

To apply for this competition:

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, 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 25^th 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 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. Entries made with times that are not appropriate/in the correct format for the event will also be rejected. If you do not have an official time please submit a time trial time – This includes relay entries.

Please note the following Entry Qualifying Times (EQT) 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

Women's 400m Individual Medley - 05Mib 45Sec 00Ms

Men's 400m Individual Medley - 05Min 15Sec 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.

Please see below a list of standard times for each event - these are not entry qualification times. These times should be used as a guide for competitors to understand the minimum standard of competition. If a swimmer’s time is slower than the time listed for their event, their entry may be rejected. 

A list of entries for checking can be found on the 'Entry Checking' tab. Please contact your institution administrator to report incorrect entries who will forward on to BUCS.

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 will not be made.

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 11^th November 2022, after which only medical substitutions are permitted if accompanied by a medical note.

A swimmer may no longer participate in any event once medically substituted unless agreed by the Meet Director.

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. 

Please note: No BUCS Points will be awarded for the 100m Individual Medley

Please note:  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.

Being registered with a governing body is not a requirement 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.

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.

The event will be held in line with the Rules and Regulations  

Qualification Time/Score, Disability Category

This will be released closer to the competition date.

Due to the warm up restrictions, the schedule and event timings will be published in the event guide. This will allow the exact timings to be set around the actual entries and for as many swimmers to participate as possible.

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