Swim Ireland Season Plan for 2020-2021 Maps A First-Draft Road To Revival Post COVID-19

Shane Ryan set for double-record action at nationals in Dublin in 2019 ... post-COVID-19, next long-course nationals will be in 2021 Photo Courtesy: Swim Ireland

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The Swim Ireland Awards Night, provisionally down for late September in Derry, a national squad training camp in Tenerife and a tentative return to regional racing scheduled for October mark the start of the 2020-21 Irish calendar in a first-draft of a Swim Ireland Season Plan out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Remaining uncertainty over where the world will be with a virus that has infected almost 6 million and taken more than 363,000 lives since it emerged in China at the turn of the year makes all plans “draft” by default. Swim Ireland’s notes as much in its cautionary note today:

“All members should note that this Plan is subject to change, particularly in relation to any Government phasing that takes place up to and including competitions commencing and any legislation that we receive in the months ahead regarding competitions, numbers permitted in venues and any other such similar guidelines.”

The first draft Swim Ireland Season Plan, which members are urged to read in conjunction with an Explanatory Notes document envisages qualification for Irish National SC Championships closing on one of two dates in November, depending on a schedule of options open to regions for staging their local SC Championships.

National Championships are scheduled for December 17-20, with national training squads then in line to return to Tenerife for a 10-day New Year’s camp from December 28.

The Flanders Cup in Antwerp in mid-January will mark the first warm-up meet of the new Olympic year on the way to Tokyo 2020 in 2021. Beyond the McCullagh International in February and the Edinburgh International in March, national-squad teamsters return to Tenerife in April.

May brings the European Championships in Budapest, while June in the Swim Ireland Season Plan foresees Canet’s Mare Nostrum stop as a last warm-up before the Irish Open from the 15th to the 19th, the 20th reserved for bonding on National Team Day a month out from the Olympic Games in Tokyo, ahead of which the Ireland shoal will be in Hamamatsu for staging camp, all being well.

Dates for the 2021 LEN European Junior Championships and for the 2021 FINA World Junior Championships will be added once they have been finalised by the European and Global governing bodies.

The first draft of the Swim Ireland Season Plan follows the Swim Ireland ‘Return To Water Roadmap’ which plotted a phased revival for elite swimmers starting this month on the way to clubs returning to the water in August, all subject to the status of the pandemic through the course of the Northern summer and Southern winter.

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