I'm still reading from the start, I'll eventually get to Andrew but that is very interesting indeed. Crazy coincidence, our oldest son, also named Andrew, also has dual citizenship.
At the time of my first posting in this thread, I was just starting to learn about cut times in Canada and more specifically in Quebec. Was learning but not really paying much attention to what was needed since I knew it wouldn't matter for another couple years anyway since they don't really apply until a kid turns 11.
The "Federation de Natation du Quebec" (FNQ) is the governing body for swimming in Quebec. They act right under Swimming Canada and rule over swimming competitions and such in Quebec. Prior to this season or was it last season, anyway back in 2013, there was three levels of cuts that Matthew could aspire to when he'd turn 11: Provincial development, P1, P2.
At the time, IIRC, he needed two provincial development cuts in order to be allowed to compete in that level of meets but my memory is kinda vague about it since they changed it since that time.
Now, the old provincial development cut is now called "A", P1 is now AA and P2 is now AAA. There's also a Quebec Cup cut but a kids needs to be 12-13 (different age for boys and girls) in order to enter and the times are so outrageous we've not even started looking at it
I've included the FNQ standard times for both boys and girls, in both short and long course. What you see on the left are for kids 10 and under and mostly for Regional development. Actually have never really seen a kid be blocked from competing at that level.
For a kid to be allowed to compete at a certain type of meet, A, AA or AAA, he needs to have three cuts of that level in at least two different styles.
Matthew has had his 11/12 A standards for a little while now. He then got his first cut in November in his second time ever competing in a 100 fly. He followed that up with a cut in 100 breast in December and had many other close call in free but could never seem to improve his free enough to make a cut. As you can see from the time sheets, other than free, no 50 event qualify for a cut other than free or else he would probably have had his 50 fly easily. He finally got his third cut about two weeks ago with a 7 seconds improvement in his 200 IM. The meet that'll happen around the end of June that I mentioned before is a AA meet. Had he not got his third cut recently, he would have needed to get it at the end of the month or else he'd have had to sit that one out. I think the one at the end of the month (long course one) is a A-AA-AAA meet which means you only need you A cuts in order to be allowed to compete...
On top of the Quebec Cup cuts, there are the National Championships cuts as you mentioned. A kid from our club got a couple of those in that last meet.
My understanding is that once a standard is achieved, it's good forever. For example, unless they change the standard before he turns 13, Matthew already has one cut at the age 13 level. His 100 fly time of 1:30.39 in long course is good enough to meet the standard of 1:32.75.
Hope this kind of makes sense.
FM