AusLeisure

Swimming Australia has today confirmed the cancellation of the 2021 Australian Short Course Swimming Championships, that were due to be held at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre from 23rd to 26th September.

Swimming Australia advise that “with the competition scheduled to take place in less than six weeks, the ongoing effects of COVID in many states and the uncertainty regarding border closures throughout the country, resulted in the difficult decision to cancel the event.”

Advising that this is a disappointing outcome but the right one considering current circumstances,

Swimming Australia Chief Executive, Alex Baumann commented “this is an unfortunate situation and again a decision we did not take lightly, but we needed to provide our swimming community with some certainty and with the borders being so unstable and regular lockdowns still occurring we feel this is the right decision.

“We would like to thank the Victorian Government and Melbourne Sports Centres – MSAC for their understanding and support during this time.”

In addition, due to the updated Federal Government policies on international travel restrictions and subsequent mandatory quarantine requirements, this has impacted Swimming Australia’s participation at the 2021 FINA World Short Course in Abu Dhabi (set to run from 15th to 20th December 2021).

Swimming Australia will facilitate entries to World Short Course (WSC) under a revised WSC selection criteria for targeted athletes but will not be sending an official Australian team to the event.

Baumann said the current international travel restrictions in place made it very difficult to support sending a team to Abu Dhabi, adding “with limited options to return to Australia, the quarantine requirements following competition falling over the Christmas and New Year period and many of our athletes just undertaken more than 10 weeks away from home, we felt sending a team to the event was not viable.

“For those athletes that still wish to attend and meet the selection criteria, we will provide a level of support to assist in travel and accommodation for the meet.”

Eligibility criteria will be based on those swimmers who have reached a FINA A standard (Long or Short Course) within the time period from 1st March 2019 to 28th November 2021 at an international competition or Swimming Australia FINA approved competition (Australian Swimming Trials/Australian Swimming Championships).

Swimming Australia will work with coaches and athletes to gauge interest on participation at WSC over the following weeks, with a maximum of 20 athletes nominated for entry.

Related Articles

9th August 2021 - Swimming Australia Chief Executive Alex Baumann to step down

25th July 2021 - AIS Chief Executive congratulates Australia’s swimming performance at Tokyo Olympic Games

19th July 2021 - New club-based Australian Swimming League set to provide elite domestic competition

12th July 2021 - Rackley Swimming opens new facility in Yamanto Central retail development

2nd July 2021 - Barrister to head Swimming Australia inquiry into discrimination and harassment claims

18th June 2021 - SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre’s hosting of 2021 Australian Swimming Trials caps a remarkable year

16th June 2021 - Swimming Australia acknowledges complaints process could have been better communicated

10th May 2021 - Swimming Australia partners with Elyptol

16th April 2021 - Swimming Australia unveils new nationwide inclusive swimwear policy

15th April 2021 - Swimming Australia names Alex Baumann as new Chief Executive

1st April 2021 - Swimming Australia confirms 2021 Age Championships will proceed on the Gold Coast

10th March 2021 - Swimming Australia extends swimwear and apparel partnership with arena

16th December 2020 - Swimming Australia presents 2020 Community Award winners

9th November 2020 - Kieren Perkins appointed as Swimming Australia President

19th August 2020 - Swimming Australia highlights role swimming can play in nation’s Coronavirus recovery

22nd April 2020 - Melbourne Sports Centres makes the most of downtime

24th January 2018 - 200,000 water bottles refilled in MSAC water conservation initiative

8th September 2018 - Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre marks 21 years of operation

25th October 2017 - MSAC achieves Platinum Pool status

12th January 2017 - Australian Pool Life Saving Championships commence at MSAC

---

Support our industry news service
We hope that you value the news that we publish so while you're here can we ask for your support?

As an independent publisher, we need reader support for our industry news gathering so ask that - if you don't already do so - you back us by subscribing to the printed Australasian Leisure Management magazine and/or our online news.