What does age on 31st December mean?
Most galas are run for swimmers of different age groups such as Under 12, Under 14, Under 16 and Open. If a gala is run on an ‘age on 31st December’ basis, it refers to how old the swimmer must be on the 31st December in the year of competition. It does not necessarily mean the age of the swimmer on the day of the competition. Thus under 12 on 31st December 2007, means no older than 11 on that date and so the swimmer must be born in or after 1996. Similarly, Under 11 on 31st December 2007 means no older than 10 and so the swimmer must be born in 1997 or later. Some events are ‘age on the day’ and this is self explanatory.
If a gala is run on an ‘age on 31st December’ basis (e.g., our Club Champs) it refers to how old the swimmer will be on the 31st December in the year of competition. It does not mean the age of the swimmer on the day of the competition, which may be different. So for example, if a swimmer’s birthday was the 20th December and they turned 12 on that date, they would swim as a 12 year old in the Club Champs even though at the time of the events (October/November) they were still 11 years old.
