Competitions

 

About Competitions

Please keep an eye on your email and our social media channels for competition notifications and updates. We will also update the training and competition calendar shows the competition dates and which squads are targeted to enter.

When to Enter...

Approximately 4–8 weeks prior to a competition, an entry portal will be opened and emailed out to members once it has been activated on the Team Unify system / On Deck app, with information about the competition and instructions on how to enter. New members should talk to their coach about entering external competitions.

How to Enter...

[This functionality is currently disabled while we await a competition calendar from West District Swimming.  Once we have one, we will enliven the site to allow you to register for races chosen by your coach]

To enter a competition, please follow these steps:

  • Make sure you’re logged into Team Unify or On Deck
  • Navigate to the competitions
  • Click on the name of the competition / meet and review the:
    • Squad eligible to enter
    • Date of meet
    • Warm up time
    • Start time
    • Age group
    • Entry fee

For entering the competition / meet...

To enter the meet, click on Edit Commitment. On the next page, scroll down and click on the swimmers / your name. On the following page, please read the Important Notes, as this is where we will specify what we expect each swimmer to enter at the meet. This will be based on what will is best to help develop the swimmer’s experience and racing skills through the experience.  For example, the Important Notes might ask that swimmers enter a minimum of four swims and include a specific event or group of events.

Next, click on the Declaration box, select YES. Once you have completed this, the events the member is eligible to enter will then appear below. Please take note of the days, sessions and events at this stage. Swimmers and parents should discuss and choose which events to enter, the Important Notes on what to enter is there to help. To select an event, click on the box on the left hand side of the page, bringing up a tick. Once all the events to be entered have been selected, click on Save Changes and your entries will be submitted. It is parent’s / older swimmers / Masters responsibility to ensure that the submitted entries are accurate, as we will assume that this is the case when processing them.

For not entering the competition

To help the coach and Meet Secretary, if you do not intend to enter the meet, we would still appreciate a response by going through the process above, clicking on the Declaration box, selecting NO and then Save Changes.

What the coaches and Meet Secretary do next...

We will then check all entries in the lead up to our closing date which is ahead of the competition’s closing . We will assess all entries prior to sending them to the host club. You will be able to see that this has been completed when there is a tick or cross next to your entries. This will be your confirmation that the entries will be submitted. 

In the rare case that an entry is not approved for any reason (almost in all instances, parents will not have followed what was outlined in the Important Notes), please contact us and we will let you know the reason.

Entries can be altered at any time up to the REN96 closing date.

Very important things to know

  • NO LATE ENTRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED
  • Swimmers will only be allowed to declare for a meet if their squad has been specified for the meet.
  • Entries will be restricted to account holders with a payment card on file for On Demand payments.  [To set this up, please log in and navigate the following: My Account > Account Info > Payment Setup > Add New Card. Select the card for On Demand Payments. Please note that this can only be completed online and not on the app.
  • We will then invoice you within a couple of days of the closing date, and debit your payment card within 10 days of the closing date.

What the host club does next...

Competitions are obviously restricted by the number of competitors they can accommodate and therefore swimmers with the fastest personal best times are prioritised. If a swimmer does not have a personal best time for an event, then one will be estimated for them by the coach based on training or time trial performance.

When the meet organisers have processed all the entries, they will circulate a swim list to the clubs. This is normally a couple of weeks prior to the competition date. The swim list will state which events the swimmers have been successful in qualifying for. The swim list will be emailed out and added to meet on Team Unify (look in the training / competition calendar section and follow the links.

How to read the entries file & what happens..

If your swimmer has ‘SCR’ next to a swim it means that the swimmer has been scratched from that event due to too many swimmers entering with faster times.

Any swimmers who are ‘SCR’ will be refunded shortly after the release of the swim lists and will be dependent whether the original payment was activated or not.  If we did not take the payment, it will not be refunded.

If your swimmer has ‘ALT’ next a swim it means that the swimmer is a reserve and will not know if they have a swim until the competition starts.

For swimmers who are ‘ALT’, the payment process is as follows:

  • We will inform any ‘ALT’ swimmers if they are moved to an accepted swim prior to the day, as soon as we are aware
  • If swimmers are still an ‘ALT’ on the day, they will need to attend the meet and session warm up. We will find out when the start lists are released if swimmers now have a swim
  • If swimmers are still an ‘ALT’ on the release of the start lists, swimmers will be helped by the Team Manager to navigate poolside marshalling and report to the starting blocks and liaise with the Refereferee who will deal with the next steps
  • If another swimmer does not appear in marshalling, then the ‘ALT’ swimmer will get their swim in the first available heat and lane
  • If an ‘ALT’ swimmer does not get their swim, they will only be eligible for a refund if they have reported to marshalling.  After each meet, the club receives a list of those swimmers eligible for a refund which will be processed shortly after the meet

Please note that if accepted swimmers withdraw from the meet, they will not be eligible for a refund at any point.

Graded Meets and Competitions with Qualifying Times / Standards

Some of the competitions have entry times that swimmers must already be faster than or in the case of graded meets entry times that the swimmer must be slower than. If there are standards for a meet, then the event selection page outlined above will highlight this. It will indicate which events swimmers qualify for, and which they are able to enter. If a swimmer’s time is in BLACK text, then they have a time that IS eligible to enter that event. If a swimmer’s time is in RED text, then they have a time that IS NOT eligible to enter that event. If there is a NT (No Time) appearing, then the swimmer can enter and a time will be estimated for them (however, in this instance, please follow the Important Notes guidelines). Please note that the qualification time for each event is included in the column on the far right of the page.