European Masters Swimming Championships 2018

I have decided that now's the time to become more competitive (never competed before)

Swimming clubs didn't make a good impression on me (ignorant, monopolistic, and snobbish), and so the "local competitions" don't have much attraction to me.

But the European Masters Championships seems the right thing! You go to a nice city, have some holiday, and also do some swimming. Since my swimming contacts are exclusively international, there is also the greatest chance to meet up (HINT).

There is very little real information available online (which confirms the monopolistic hold the clubs have over swimming). But I found out the following:

- Homepage is European Masters Swimming Championships 2018 http://www.emc2018.com/ .
- Beginning September 2018.
- A little general information is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Masters_Swimming_Championships .
- At least London 2016 was open to everybody with a 12 months cat-2 club european membership.
- The "standard times" for London 2016 are at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Masters_Swimming_Championships .
- I will only compete the 50m freestyle, and there the standard time was 35s.
- There seems no official statement on the organisation (not for London 2016, and not in general -- what does this tell us?!), but my investigations are, that the following seems the likely mode of operation: for every "event" (like 50m freestyle) you state your expected time (apparently there are no restrictions, no control, no penalties), you are grouped in a group of 8 with similar times, then you swim ONE swim, and then of three things happens: (i) disqualified (ii) worse than the standard time (your times are not listed, only your name), (iii) otherwise you enter the general list, which after sorting yields the total ranking.

For me the main technical problem left is that "cat-2 club membership". I need to find out about the restrictions on membership (could I become member of any European club?), and then find one with a non-training membership.

Hopefully others join in!

For 2018 my goals are:
- the way is the goal (i.e., good training towards it)
- 50m in 50m pool below 30s
- ranking amongst the first 100.

The plan is then to continually go every two years, and expand the events (next would come 100m, which by the way has a surprisingly weak standard time).

The correct link for the 2016 standard times is
http://euroaquatics2016.london/standard-times/

Concerning membership: in the UK it is possible to have an "individual membership" with "Swim England" resp. "Swim Wales", which enables you to compete, while you don't need to be member of a club.

Possibly the checks on those "standard times" will be tighter for the 2018 Championships (than for 2016 London), and thus I'll be attending some small master's meets soon (only 50m freestyle).

The web page
http://www.emc2018.com/
has now some content.
Registration opens 1.1.2018.

 European Masters Swimming Championships
 will be held in Kranj from 2 September till 7 September 2018.

 European Masters Open Water Swimming Championships
 will be held in Bled on 8 and 9 September 2018.

Qualification times ("standard times") are online:
http://www.emc2018.com/sports/swimming

For the events I consider, age group 50-54:
 50m freestyle (event 14):  33.7s
 100m freestyle (event 29): 1:20.

33.7s is quite tough, 1:20 is quite easy. I think the 50m freestyle has the hardest qualification times, since it is the largest event.

The registration is open at

  http://www.emc2018.com/registration

but unfortunately the payment system forces you to create an account with PayPal, which I do not want to do (PayPal is a USA institution, under USA legislation -- while this is a European event). Hopefully one can find out how to register without this.

I registered to Slovenia masters 5k, that will be swum event in Bled Lake on the 9th of September:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfOnY7zhuzt/

This week's yield #1(3km test):
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfYf8kph4aq/

This week's yield #2(4km test):
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfdWETRB8pc/

3km (40:02) and 4km (53:38) by wearing shorts is not bad for a 40-44 age group amateur swimmer i think. If i swim around respectively 39 and 52 minutes in my time trials, that will be fantastic for me.

I dont have facebook account but you may follow my instagram (Marathon Swimming-Turkey).

I will keep sharing my milestones on the way to Slovenia...

---------------------------
Some stimulating remarks from Mahatma Ghandi for motivation:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaTXNpyhNqY/

Seems I actually won't do the European's this year (perhaps then 2020).
Had this big interruption in training for the last 4 1/2 months (badly inflamed meniscus, and some other related problems), can only now slowly restart (serious) training.

Did my Tenerife camp 2 weeks ago, was very welcome for the restart. And finally I believe the mysteries of my technical difficulties are solved. So I am quite optimistic about swimming. But the steam for the European is gone; and also the two experiences with master's competitions here in the UK weren't that great (zero, absolutely zero effort on any form of socialising on the parts of the organisers or the other swimmers -- complete anonymity), so it seems I don't go there.