AUSTRALIA. Australia’s national short course swimming championships were scheduled from 22 -24 October in Melbourne. Since city is still in a strict lockdown due to COVID-19 infections, the competition has been replaced with virtual ‘championships’ instead. Now, the swimmers will compete at venues in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Hobart. The finals will be divided into four sessions from 27-29 November.
The results of the event will be sent to a centralised platform from where the swimmers will be ranked to determine their final position. No national championship title will be awarded.
In an open statement, Australia’s Chief Swimming Strategist, Alex Baumann said, “We don’t feel it is fair to hold an Australian championship when not all athletes may be able to compete. We understand many states are still restricted by border closures which will prevent travel to a single event, but we felt strongly about providing meaningful racing opportunities for our athletes”
Meanwhile, an event in South Australia has now been organized as the swimmers based there have no COVID-19 restrictions. Swimmers can choose to compete in any of the other meets as they don’t have travel restrictions either. All of the meets are going to be held by following state government and public health guidelines.
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