With the 2016 Short Course World Championships approaching, qualification procedures have been expanded to allow Dutch swimmers in the NCAA an opportunity to qualify for the meet with short course yards times.
Qualification is allowed in a single meet of choice, provided that there is live timing, the meet is organized according to FINA regulations, and the meet takes place by November 4th. Qualifying times will be determined using the swimming time conversion tool to translate times from short course meters to short course yards.
Among the notable swimmers affected by this are Tennessee’s Kira Toussaint (back/sprint free), Alabama’s Laurent Bams (sprint free/fly), and Queens University’s Dion Dreesens (mid free), who will all be competing in yards ahead of the World Championships as a part of their respective NCAA teams.
Below is a chart of the Dutch SCM standard for some of the aformentioned swimmers’ best events, along with the SCY conversion calculated by the Swim Time Converter.
Dutch Qualifying Standards For Short Course Worlds
| Event | Dutch SCM Standard (M/W) | SCY Conversion |
| 50 free (men) | 21.26 | 19.15 |
| 100 free (men/women) | 46.69 / 52.58 | 42.06 / 47.36 |
| 200 free (men) | 1:42.76 | 1:32.57 |
| 100 back (women) | 57.64 | 51.92 |
| 200 back (women) | 2:04.76 | 1:52.39 |
| 100 fly (men) | 50.20 | 45.22 |
Toussaint and Dreesens have best times that are already under the standard, so they’ll have to replicate that or do better to make the team. Toussaint’s best of 50.85 would put her over a second under the 100 back standard (51.92). Dreesens, on the other hand, has been just under the mark in the 200 free (1:32.57) with his personal best 1:32.46.
Both Bams and Toussaint are within a half second of the 100 free qualifying time (42.06 men, 47.36 women) with bests of 47.78 and 42.39, respectively.
Great move by the Dutch. Now if only the rest of the world would get onboard and respect yard time conversion! Yards RULE!!!
time to shine!