Competitive Swimming

The competitive season runs all year round with long course (50m) from October to April and short course (25m) May through September. There are different types of meets held catering for swimmers of differing ability or competitiveness.

• Development: Development meets are, as the name suggest, for those new to competitive swimming who are getting official times for the first time or competing in an event for the first time. The meets will have ‘break times’ meaning you must swim SLOWER than the listed time for that event.
• Open: Open meets have no restriction on entry requirements (unless it is specified on the program for specific events) and cater for all swimmers. Swimmers will be seeded into heats based on previous qualifying times.
• Qualifying: Qualifying meets have entry times for each event which must have been achieved prior to being able to enter. These times must be official recorded on the Swim Central system.
• Championship: These meets also have entry times for each event and will generally be faster depending on the championship type. For example, the CVSA championship qualifying times will be slower than the qualifying times for NSW Country or NSW State.

The dates and locations for area meets are available on the CVSA website. CVSA is the area body compromising swimming clubs from the Central Coast, Lake Macquarie, Newcastle and the Hunter Valley. CVSA coordinates local competitions and holds CVSA Championships twice yearly.

Meets operated by other areas can be found by searching for events through Swim Central. Swim Central is the administrative and membership system used in swimming.

Meets operated by Swimming NSW are listed on their website.

To enter a meet, you’ll need to have a ‘Full Swimmer’ membership. For more information on club memberships, see the Membership page.
Meets are entered via Swim Central. Many meets fill quickly so it is important to enter as soon as entries open.