I feel that this is unfortunate for a number of reasons, not least of which, because many swimmers hoped to do this after or instead of Ontario Provincial Championships as an end to their season. Instead of being able to do this early July, swimmers will now have to train until mid August in order to participate, which leaves many clubs scratching their heads and wondering how to pay for pool time and coaching for an extra few weeks (outside of their budget).
HHBF has not budgeted for an extra month of training time or coaching so unfortunately, Blue Fins who chose to participate will be registering and training on their own for a great deal of time. This is an extreme letdown to me, as I was really looking forward to Open Water Provincials. I do not direct my frustration and disappointment at Swim Ontario (as they had no choice in this matter) but I direct it at the same people who open AGN up to 2000 swimmers, make it go so late in the year and continually push the agenda of having swimmers swim year-round. I think this is an unfortunate decision, but one that the Ontario Swimming community will have to deal with. I apologize to all Ontario Swimmers who feel the same as me.
Swim Ontario's official announcement and the details of the meet can be found HERE.
