Canadian Selection Criteria For The 2018 Pan Pacific Championships

2018 Canadian Swimming Trials

Team Canada will use their upcoming Pan Pac Trials meet as the sole way for swimmers to qualify for the Championships later this summer in Tokyo, electing not to use the Commonwealth Games as a means of qualifying like Australia did.

The qualifying criteria is fairly simple, with the winner of each Olympic event automatically making their way onto the team, followed by the 2nd, 3rd and 4th place finishers in both the 100 and 200 freestyles for relay purposes.

After that, High Performance Director John Atkinson will have the sole discretion to add any additional swimmers for the medley relays (which will likely only be necessary if a swimmer wins multiple 100m events), and then swimmers who placed 2nd in Olympic events and achieved the 2017 FINA ‘A’ standard will be added based on world rankings until the team reaches a maximum of 32.

PAN PACIFIC QUALIFYING PRIORITIES

  1. All swimmers finishing 1st in an Olympic event will be selected.
  2. The top four finishers in the 100 and 200 freestyle will be selected.
  3. After those two criteria are complete, the High Performance Director has the sole discretion to choose any additional swimmers required for the medley relays.
  4. If positions remain vacant after priorities 1-3 are completed, 2nd place finishers in Olympic events who attained the FINA ‘A’ standard will be added (in order of world ranking up until the maximum team size of 32).
  5. If the team still hasn’t hit full capacity, the same will go for 3rd place finishers who achieve the FINA ‘A’ standard.
  6. At the end of the Trials, the High Performance Director may select additional swimmers to the team which may result in a team exceeding 32 swimmers.

The full selection criteria can be found here.

The FINA ‘A’ standards that will be in effect for the meet are as follows:

Event Male Female
50 freestyle 22.47 25.18
100 freestyle 48.93 54.90
200 freestyle 1:47.73 1:58.68
400 freestyle 3:48.15 4:10.57
800 freestyle 7:54.31 8:38.56
1500 freestyle 15:12.79 16:32.04
100 backstroke 54.06 1:00.61
200 backstroke 1:58.55 2:11.53
100 breaststroke 1:00.35 1:07.58
200 breaststroke 2:11.11 2:25.91
100 butterfly 52.29 58.48
200 butterfly 1:57.28 2:09.77
200 IM 2:00.22 2:13.41
400 IM 4:17.90 4:43.06

If we strictly go off Canada’s performance at the Commonwealth Games, 15 swimmers swam under the FINA ‘A’ standard, excluding the now retired Hilary Caldwell. Take a look at the list of swimmers below, who will be the front runners to book their ticket to Pan Pacs next week in Edmonton.

Men (3):

Women (12):

Some of the other performances from in-season meets (or Canadian Nationals in April) that have been under the standard this year include Rebecca Smith in the 100 and 200 free, Kayla Sanchez in the 200 free and 200 IM, Taylor Ruck in the 200 IM, and Sydney Pickrem, who didn’t compete at the Commonwealth Games, in the 200 breast and both medley events.

As has been the story for the past number of years, it looks like the Canadian women will be sending an elite squad to Tokyo that will challenge for a number of medals, while the men have their work cut out for them to be competitive.

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NJones
5 years ago

Anyone else missing? A number of retirements this year; Chantel, Sandrine. .. Noemi Thomas. .?

NJones
5 years ago

Where is the 436 IM’er, Marie Sophy Harvey?

Marley09
Reply to  NJones
5 years ago

She withdrew.

Canadaman11
5 years ago

Is Ruck only doing the freestyles? The psych sheets don’t list her in anything else.

swimfan
Reply to  Canadaman11
5 years ago

Yes, she is only swimming the free. She can swim any events she wants at PanPacs once she gets in.

About James Sutherland

James Sutherland

James swam five years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in 2018, graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics. In 2019 he completed his graduate degree in sports journalism. Prior to going to Laurentian, James swam …

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