Welsh Team Selection Criteria 2025

Only athletes who are a member of SLSA Wales & either born in Wales or have Welsh heritage are eligible for Selection.  The Welsh team will be selected based on the best athletes available and are selected based on attendance and performance at the ranking event. The selection decisions are final and not subject to appeal.

The 2025 Welsh Senior Team will consist of 6 Male and 6 female athletes. Open Team ages 16+ (Competitors who turn 16 years of age on or before 31st December 2025).

The 2025 Welsh Youth Team will consist of 6 Male and 6 female athletes. Youth Team ages 15 to 18 (Competitors who turn 15, 16, 17 and 18 years of age on or before 31st December 2025).

The selected team will compete at the Filcow Competition in Belgium, which is due to be held on the weekend of the 5th and 6th July 2025 and the Celtic Cup Challenge on 6th September 2025. If competitors are not available for the Belgium competition, they are to make this known on the Athlete Declaration Form.

Selection Criteria:

  • Competitors must be in good standing with SLSA Wales and available for the Celtic Cup competition on 6th September 2025.
  • Attendance at the Welsh Ranking on 24th & 25th May 2025 is mandatory to be eligible for selection.
  • Attendance at the Welsh Ocean Championships is desirable, to show commitment to the sport and continual training. Further details will be provided on the Athlete Declaration form.

 

Ranking Event –Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th May 2025 Whitmore Bay, Barry Island

This year the Welsh ranking will follow the format of the GBR team ranking. It will be one ranking taking place over a full weekend consisting of 3 rounds of each individual event.

An Athlete Declaration Form will come out prior to the ranking for athletes to declare interest and events.

Selectors will look at all the results from the whole weekend, if the athlete proceeds to drop out of any of the events they have entered, the rest of those results for that event will be made void, unless there is an extenuating circumstance that arises on the day,  E.g. if you race in the first board race, then you have to race in the second and third board race, for the results to count.

Events to be contested:

3x Sprints, 3 x Flags, 3 x Swim, 3 x Board, 3 x Ski and 3 x Oceanman /Oceanwoman.

 

Competitors will be expected to race in at least 3 individual disciplines. This is due to not knowing what the wildcard event will be. It does not matter if the third event is weaker than your two main events.

For the ranking event, the youth and open will enter each event as one group, and the team managers will pick the competitor for either the youth or open team to obtain the best team possible.

For beach sprints, the youth will run in their own age group up to the last 4; the open will run for the same, and then the ages will be combined to run a final of 8. To ensure fairness, if there are not enough seniors for heats, then a heat will be run, with each competitor going through to final. The flag events will be run separately.

 

Full trial programme and entry procedures will be announced at a later date.