British Swimming Announces World Championships Qualifying Procedures

Photo Courtesy: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

British Swimming will select its roster for next summer’s FINA World Championships at a domestic qualifying meet April 18-23, but the organization will not simply select the top two athletes per event, regardless of time, to its World Championship roster.

Britain will take a maximum of 30 swimmers to the World Championships in Budapest, and the only athletes guaranteed spots on the team will be the winners in each of the 26 individual Olympic events that also meet certain automatic qualifying standards, which are listed below.

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These qualifying standards are highly ambitious, and only a handful of Britons figure to reach these marks. At the Rio Olympics, only Jazz Carlin (400 & 800 free), Fran Halsall (50 free), Siobhan-Marie O’Connor (200 IM), Adam Peaty (100 breast) Andrew Willis (200 breast) achieved these marks. James Guy, the reigning World Champion in the men’s 200 free, will have to improve on his 1:45.49 from Rio in that event to ensure selection.

After these qualifiers automatically are named to the team, the National Performance Director may select up to six athletes to participate in the meet, and then further spots could be filled (up to two per event) if the winner or runner-up in an Olympic event achieves the still-quick time standards below.

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Relays may be selected if the aggregate time of the four potential participants in an event meet the time standards listed at the bottom of the above chart. If the top four finishers in the 100 and 200 free for each gender meet the qualifying time, all four could be selected for the team.

Britain has also put out the qualifying standards for the open water events at the World Championships, the European Junior Championships (pool and open water) and the World Junior Championships. Those are available here.

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