SYDNEY, Dec 20: Australian swimmers 18 years and under will be banned from wearing full bodysuits in competition under new bylaws passed by the board of Swimming Australia.

The board also agreed with other leading swimming nations, including the United States, to ask the governing body FINA not to approve any further swimsuits and ban the use of “multilayer” suits in competition after some competitors at the Beijing Olympics wore as many as three suits to help with buoyancy.

The laws will come into effect in April, just before the Australian age-group championships in Sydney.

Under the new laws, male swimsuits cannot extend above the waist or below the knees, while female suits must have open back and shoulder designs. Zippers and other types of fastening systems have been banned.

“What we are doing with the age-group swimming is very important and something we felt needs to be addressed,” Australia head coach Alan Thompson told Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald.

“It needs to have an equal playing field in the age-group area. Up in Queensland this week at the state championships, there were 12-year-olds wearing full-length suits. We don’t want to price people out of our sport.”

Thompson said that while the suits would be banned for all swimmers 18 years and under competing at age-group competitions, those swimmers may wear them in open competitions, such as next year’s world championships selection trials.

Swimming Australia president David Urquhart said its decision was unanimous.

“We all agree this modification is in the interest of equal opportunity, fair and equitable competition and to prevent the deterioration of swimming skill development,” he said in a statement.

Thompson said the board backed a campaign for FINA to stop approving high-tech suits until they’d been tested.

“Basically, we are supporting what the Americans and Europeans have been saying, and the main point of difference is we are saying directly to FINA that we want them to not approve any more swimsuits, and have independent scientific testing done of suits,” he said.

FINA is doing new research into the suits and has invited 21 manufacturers to a Feb. 20 meeting at its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. Rule changes could be submitted at the FINA Bureau meeting in March –– and perhaps enacted in time for the 2009 world championships in Rome, scheduled for July 18 to Aug. 2.—AP