Swimming marathon "24h MASTERS AquaChallenge ", 11th edition

General information :

· Period of implementation : 22-23.03.2025

· Location : "Bega" swimming pool , Circumvalațiunii area , Timișoara , 25 m, 6 lanes, water temperature approx. 29 degrees;

· Target group : people over 18 years old;

· Purpose: promoting masters swimming;

· Organizer: MASTERS Swimming Club Timişoara , in collaboration with: Timiş County Department for Sports and Youth, Faculty of Physical Education and Sports - West University of Timişoara .

participants

 · Persons who have reached the age of 18 years old by the date of the event and are in good health and physically fit to participate in such an event may participate. Exceptionally , with the written consent of one of the parents or an adult guardian, persons who have reached the age of 16 may also participate. Age must be proven on the basis of their own identity document.

· It is not necessary for participants to be part of a sports club/ association .

· Each participant will be part of a team. Registration can be done as a team or individually.

· Participants will compete at their own risk. To this end, they will sign a declaration before the start of the event.

· Throughout the event, participants must behave appropriately, in the spirit of fair play and respect for teammates, opponents, and officials.

TEAMS

· Teams are made up of 8 starters + ( optional ) 2 reserves.

· The registrants will swim for 30 minutes, in a maximum of 6 rounds, in the order of the schedule (total 3 hours).

The reserve will be able to replace an unavailable starter, but will not be able to swim:

- 2 times in a round;

- 2x30 minutes consecutively;

- more than 4 rounds.

· Each team will have a team captain who will ensure communication between the organizers and the team members.

· Each team (E) swims in one lane.

· In the event that, during the announced registration period, more teams register than the number of lanes in the pool (6), the teams that register after exceeding the number of lanes will be able to participate only if the organizers manage to co-opt a sufficient number of referees to ensure the counting process of the pools completed. It is possible to register a maximum of two teams over the number of lanes. Compared to the distribution of the first 6 teams (made using the algorithm above), the positioning of the 2 teams per lane will be done by drawing lots so that: (a) the two lanes in which two teams swim are not lanes 1 and 6, located at the edges of the pool (the stairs at the ends of the pool restrict the width of the lane) and (b) the two lanes in which two teams swim are not in direct proximity. In other words, in this situation, it is possible for two of the teams in lanes 2-3-4-5 to swim in the same lane as another team.

Equipment

· The use of a swimming helmet is mandatory. The use of swimming goggles is recommended.

· The use of special swimming costumes or auxiliary materials is not allowed: fins, flippers, floats, etc.

Competition schedule

Saturday, 22.03.2025

11.30-11.45 registration payment: team captains make the payment for each team separately

11.40-12:00 warm-up

12.10-12.20 technical meeting with team captains

competition opening ceremony :

- group photo (all participants, but grouped into teams)

- opening statement

- about the water issue

- guest swimming event (100 m)

- closing of the opening ceremony

13:00 marathon start

Sunday, 23.03.2025

13.00 final whistle

13.20 group photo (mixed, not in teams)

13.30 awards ceremony (teams and individuals)

14.00 closing of the event

Regulations

- swimmers will report to the start a maximum of 5 minutes before the scheduled time;

- the start can be taken from the start block , from the edge of the pool or from the water;

- during swimming, the use of any swimming technique is permitted;

- participants will swim in the lane where their team is scheduled to swim, so as to avoid collisions with swimmers in the neighboring lane;

- the relay handover will be announced by a long whistle, 30 seconds before the scheduled time. After the long whistle, the relay handover will take place when the swimmers reach the end of the pool, in the part from which the start is made;

- in the event of a competitor being late for the relay handover , he/she will only be able to swim the remaining time of the 30 minutes corresponding to the respective round, from the moment of presentation at the start, without any other penalties;

- the number of pools completed will be counted by the lane referees, with video evidence available for any appeals ;

- after each 4-hour cycle, statistics with the results obtained, both at team and individual level, will be displayed inside the pool.

- the behavior of the participants must be respectful towards the referees, the other participants , spectators, organizers or volunteers;

beverages is not allowed during the competition;

- between 21.00 pm and 08.00 am you can sleep in the gym, on the mattresses. In the gym:

one enters without shoes and without food.

o there is no conversation and no smoking.

o phones should be turned down to minimum (muted would be even better!).

- it is advisable for those who wish to sleep at the pool to bring a sleeping bag or blanket. When leaving the room, the sleeping equipment is packed and the mattress is left available (occupying the mattress is not allowed if the owner of the equipment is not sleeping on it at that moment)

- failure to comply with the above leads to penalties ( up to exclusion from the competition), the decision being at the discretion of the organizers.

Penalties

- a false start (false start) is penalized with 10 laps;

wrong turn (if the wall is not touched with any part of the body) is penalized with 10 laps;

- failure to respect the order of entry at the start is penalized with 10 pools;

- failure to respect the space for the referees, or disturbing them, is penalized with 10 pools.

Penalties will be applied at the end of the competition , by subtracting from the total number of pools completed by the penalized team.

Registration

· Registration will be done in chronological order.

· If there are swimmers without a team, they will be able to register individually; depending on their number, the organizers will be able to form one or more teams, the criterion applied being chronological (in order of registration) or they will take steps to integrate those registered individually into teams already registered.

· Registered (complete) teams have priority over teams formed by the organizers from individual swimmers.

· Registrations will be made online, from 03.03.2025 to 13.03.2026, at the address: http://www.timisoara.inot-masters.ro . Registrations will be possible later, until 20.03, but, after 13.03, the t-shirt offered will no longer have the year printed on it and, after the firm order is sent to the supplier regarding the number of t-shirts for each size , we cannot guarantee that the t-shirt will correspond to the requested size .

· The composition of the teams and their distribution by lane will be announced online by 21.03.2025.

competition participation fee is 180 lei per person.