From this Thursday 14 November until Sunday 17 November, Gladsaxe will host the Danish Short Course Championships 2013, that will decide the Danish squads for the Herning 2013 European Short Course Championships, and the 2013 Nordic Championships / Nordic Junior Championships in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands.
(NTC head coach Shannon Rollason and national coach Nick Juba evaluating the Danish Long Course Champs men’s 200 backstroke with swimmers Andreas Schiellerup and Magnus Jákupsson. Rollason’s gesture says is all. Photo courtesy of Jákup Jacobsen)
The Danes have relaxed their selection criteria, but also limited the qualification period to only these Championships, which should account for 4 very exciting days in Gladsaxe. A total of 579 swimmers are registered for the meet, of which Danish Swimming’s high performance manager Mikkel von Seelen expects about 35 to qualify for Herning 2013, plus an unspecified number for the Nordic Champs.
(Alternative Live Stream Link)
All 4 final sessions will be live streamed here on dr.dk, with live results here on livetiming.dk. The competition program is quite similar to the one at Herning 2013, but without semifinals, addition of the 800 for men and 1500 for women, and with a bit of reordering of events within each individual finals session, I guess to better accommodate swimmers who do multiple events.
The Danish Federation has prepared selection criteria for the Herning 2013 Europeans that they expect will be reached by record number of swimmers, as generally all medalists will qualify who also make a minimum time requirement of 780 FINA points in the event. The exception is the 800 and 1500 freestyle, where only the 2 fastest with 780 FINA points will be selected, and where the Federation has also decided to protect those swimmers who by 1 Oct 2013 were ranked 6th or better in Europe in the women’s 800 free or men’s 1500 free. There is still a requirement that the distance swimmers take part in the event, if not sick.
According to SwimRankings, Lotte Friis is now ranked 2nd in Europe in the women’s 800 freestyle, and Mads Glæsner 7th in the men’s 1500 freestyle. I don’t have the tools nor the energy to check out the status per October 1st, but both swimmers are present in Gladsaxe, and clear favorites who should easily make 780+ FINA points.
The FINA point scale in use is the 2012 SCM version, frozen per August 2013. See the specific time standards here.
A maybe simpler explanation
- LEN allows each country to enter up to 4 swimmers in each individual event but 800 and 1500
- Danes select up to 3 swimmers, if they medal and make a certain time standard in the final
- In case 4 (or more?) swimmers medal in an event (because of equal) times, 4 will be selected
- A swimmer can qualify by making the time standard in the prelims, if not 3 do in the final
- LEN allows only 2 swimmer to be entered from each country in the 800 and 1500, therefore the
Danes will select only the 2 fastest in the 800/1500, and only if they make the time standard - Pre-selected are 800 and 1500 meter swimmers who ranked 6th or better in Europe by Oct 1st
The qualified swimmers will be allowed to enter in extra events also, and the Federation might select also additional swimmers for relays, the squad to be announced immediately after these championships. The European SC relay events are 4×50 free, 4×50 medley, 4×50 free mixed and 4×50 medley mixed, and the Danes plan to man them all.
The Danish selection criteria for Nordic Juniors and Nordic Champs are a bit more complicated, and difficult to determine now per event at the Danish SC Champs, so I think I’ll just skip that part until the squads are announced after the meet. But to describe it shortly, the Juniors are age limited to girls 1998-1999 and boys 1996-1997 and the Champs to ‘pre-seniors’ aged girls 1995-1997 and boys 1993-1995. The Juniors will be selected based on a combination of events (for instance 100 and 200 breaststroke), with only one selected per those ‘categories’, while the squad for the Nordic Champs will be the 4 girls and 4 boys who reach the highest FINA points in the Danish SC finals.
The Danes generally demand the time standards to be reached in the finals, but will allow qualification in prelims also, as long as all qualifying spots in that event are not filled in the final (no matter if the prelim time is better than those qualifying in the final). For Herning, it will thus be possible for a swimmer to qualify who makes the time standard in the prelims but not in the final, as long as the swimmer there medals. If two swimmers win bronze, they will both be selected. And in the 800 and 1500, the demand is as mentioned silver or better, with a time now at the Danish champs over 780 FINA points.
I will try to prepare a preview for each day, these following 4 days, plus of course a summary afterwards.
