PARENTAL GUIDE TO GALAS AND OPENS

Licenced Galas

A gala licenced by the ASA to be at a set standard with ASA qualified judges.

In a licenced gala a swimmer can achieve a licenced time which will be entered onto the ASA ranking website. A swimmer must have registered as ASA category 2 to compete in these events and register a time.

TYPES OF GALAS

INTERNAL GALAS
Club Championships – not licenced at the moment Colours Gala – not licenced
EXTERNAL GALAS
Inter Club Galas – not licenced
Open Galas – licenced
County Development Galas – licenced
County Championships – licenced
Regional Championships –licenced
National Championships – licenced
International Gala – not licenced

Club Championships

Held over several days and although not licenced at the moment we are hoping to get them licenced in the very near future. Swimmers swim age as at the 31st December of the year in which the event is taking place. Swimmers enter this event themselves by filling in an entry form which will either be emailed to them or from downloading it from the website. The age groups for this event are

X – 10 and under D – 18 and under A – 12 and under E – Over 18
B – 14 and under
C – 16 and under

The 50m events are swum in age groups but there may be more than one heat per age group, so even if your child wins their heat they may not have won the event as swimmers in another heat who are the same age may have swum faster. Heats are seeded by times so when all heats have been swum the top six will be awarded either medals or ribbons according to their place. All other events are swum in time seeded order regardless of age. When all swimmers have swum the top six from each age group will be awarded medals or ribbons according to their place.

Colours Gala

This event is swum age at date of gala. All swimmers in club will be invited to take part by email and when we know who is available to swim, we split the swimmers into 3 teams and then they swim against each other in a pre-set gala programme which will include individual relay and squadron events. A top team will be announced and swimmers receive medals.

Inter Club Galas

These events can be age at date of gala or as at 31st December in the year which the event is being held (it is up to the club who are holding the gala). These are galas when we compete against other clubs in a predetermined gala programme. Swimmers are selected and invited to swim by the Team manager / gala secretary who will contact you via Email. The club try to take on galas pitched at varied levels in order that all swimmers get an opportunity to compete for the club. A level galas are when our fastest swimmers in each event are selected; in B and C level galas other swimmers will get the opportunity to compete.

Time capped galas are events in which each event has a time cap, if a swimmer swims faster than the time cap they receive a speeding ticket and do not get points for the club in this race. When we swim these galas it gives swimmers that maybe do not usually get picked for galas a chance to compete against swimmers of a similar ability. We always choose swimmers who are slower than the time cap and never ask swimmers not to swim their fastest. If a swimmer is faster than the time cap this is a positive not a negative as although we do not get points for the clubs total it means that the swimmer has achieved a personal best time.

Opens

Opens are age at date of galas. Swimmers enter these events themselves. Opens are always seeded by time and result sheets are posted on poolside and outside for parents to look at. Opens are pitched at different levels, level 1 are for swimmers looking for national or regional times, level 2 are for swimmers looking for regional and county times, level 3 are for swimmers who have not quite got county times and level 4 are for all swimmers who qualify and our club championships will be a level 4 gala, but only swimmers who have an ASA category 2 can enter opens except the club championships (when all our swimmers can enter) although only category 2 swimmers can record a licenced time. Most opens have a qualifying time which swimmers must have swum faster than before they can enter the event. Some opens have a qualifying time which the swimmers have to be slower than, in these cases if a swimmer swims faster than the qualifying time they get an official licenced time but they will not get a medal in this event e.g.

Band A

1st Swimmer B 27.9

Band B

Band C

2nd Swimmer C 3rd Swimmer I 4th Swimmer A

5th Swimmer J 1st Swimmer E

28.6 29.6

32.4 33.5 33.7

2nd Swimmer D 33.8 3rd Swimmer H 34.3 4th Swimmer F 35.4

1st Swimmer G 37.4 2nd Swimmer K 38.2

So some swimmers who have slower times than their teammates will win a medal because they have the fastest time in their time band and their team mate has a faster time but are in a quicker time band i.e. Swimmer J and Swimmer E

County Development Gala

This gala is swum age at the date of the last gala. Swimmer enters themselves and this event is swum in time seeded heats regardless of age. These gala are usually held in late October early November and swimmers have to be slower than the County qualifying times. It gives all swimmers the opportunity to swim in a County event and to achieve a County qualifying time in a licenced event.

County/Regional/National Championships

These championships are swum over several dates and they are swum age at date of the last gala. All these championships have qualifying times that swimmers have to swim faster than in a LICENCED GALA. These galas are swum time seeded heats regardless of age. The club will advise swimmers if they have achieved a qualifying time for one of the above events. These events also have relay races and the club chooses the teams and will invite the chosen to swim.

International Gala

Beacon swim against Greven (a German swim team) and sometimes Montargis (a French swim team) every year in an international gala – one year the gala will be held in Germany, the next year in France and then the next year we host the gala in the U.K. Swimmers can be invited to swim in either our A team, B team or to be part of an international team which will be made up from swimmers from all three countries. The teams then all compete in a swimming gala in a set programme which is the same each year and is also swum as age as at the 31st December of the year in which the gala is taking place.

All licenced times are recorded on the British Swimming web site and swimmers can look up their times on the ranking sites and compare their position in the County, Region or where you rank nationally.