Swim Ireland has announced that all regional and national competitions originally scheduled between now and the end of this season in August 2020 will no longer take place, and others will be postponed.
The association had already cancelled their Olympic and Paralympic trials, which were due to take place at the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin at the beginning of next month, and with yesterday’s closure of non-essential businesses the NAC has also closed its doors.
That means that Ireland’s elite swimmers cannot train at their Dublin base for now.
As a response, the governing body has now taken the unprecedented step of cancelling or postponing not only its swimming events over the next five months, but also diving, water polo and masters events.
The full list of postponements and cancellations is here.
Swim Ireland said in a statement: “This decision has not been taken lightly and follows the most recent decrees of both the Irish and UK governments.
“We felt that it was important at this time to reassure our athletes and all of those who work with and for them that there is no urgent need during these difficult times to be back in a swimming pool to prepare for a Regional or National competition.
“For those of our members, for whom the pinnacle of your swimming season was to compete in their Regional Championships, the Irish Open Championships, Irish Summer National Championships or the Irish National Division 2 Competition, we understand that this news is likely to be disappointing. However, we were concerned that there might be a level of stress and anxiety related to competitions still on the horizon whilst the opportunity to train in the pool was not available and we felt that it was important to give you clarity on the matter to allow any such worries to end.”
Read RTE and Swim Ireland
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