Qualification will be on the line for several major global events at the national championships, beginning on Monday.
That includes the Commonwealth Games, the world championships and the Mare Nostrum tour, around southern Europe.
A squad of 15 Dunedin swimmers will compete at the championships, a mixture of locals and those based in the city, but still representing their home clubs.
Erika Fairweather has already qualified for both the Games and world championships and will enter as a favourite in the 200m and 400m freestyle.
Caitlin Deans went close to Olympic qualification a year ago, and will try again for the two major events with her best chance coming in the longer freestyle races.
She had already secured a spot on the Mare Nostrum tour.
Swim Dunedin associate coach Kurt Crosland said she was in a good place heading into the event.
"Caitlin’s looking really good. She’s switched on and matured a lot from that [her attempted Olympic qualification]," Crosland said.
"I obviously don’t want to put too much pressure on it. But you get what you train for, I suppose, and she’s been training quite well."
Ruby Heath is another looking for qualification in the open water category.
She completed the first half of that by winning a national open water title last weekend, and will have to back that up in the pool next week.
Kale Twist was another Crosland felt was a chance of qualifying for the Junior Pan Pacific Games.
The national championships will be run under Red protocols, meaning men and women would be divided into separate pods to keep under the 200-person gathering limit.
Covid-19 had impacted on the Otago swimmers, although Crosland felt they had coped with it well.
There had been few with lingering effects.
He said Swim Otago had done a great job running events within restrictions in recent months, notably praising Marg Eton, who had finished in her job yesterday, and was significant in keeping things going.
That had been important in being ready for the season’s pinnacle event.
The championships begin on Monday and run until Saturday.
