Watford Swimming Club aims to unlock every swimmer's maximum potential. With hard work and dedication many swimmers will reach county, regional and national level. International competitions such as European juniors are also in the grasp of a few of our current season of swimmers.
COUNTY LEVEL
The Hertfordshire County Championships take place over three weekends in January. This is the first step on the competition ladder that swimmers aim to qualify for. Swimmers can qualify in their relevant age group in two ways:
- By achieving a QT (qualifying time) = this guarantees entry.
- By achieving a CT (consideration time) = the swimmer will also need to be within the top batch of their age group to then be accepted. For example, a female 12 year old will need to be within the top 24 girls for the 12 years 50m Freestyle at the closing date otherwise she will be rejected.
Currently all age groups in British Swimming are run age as of 31st December in that calendar year.
To find out more information about County Championships then please visit the Swim England Hertfordshire website. From there you can view the most up to date qualifying times for 2021 and also view last year's results.
Here are the highlights from 2020's champs (Via: Swim England Hertfordshire's YouTube):
REGIONAL LEVEL
The next step on the competition ladder is regional. Watford Swimming Club is part of Swim England East Region where each season at the end of April and beginning of May the best in the region compete at regional champs. Again, there are qualifying times that a swimmer will need to achieve in order to race. Qualifying times for the champs can be found here. These champs are hosted in Luton and Norwich.
East Region have also introduced a Summer Regional champs which is aimed at swimmers who only race heats at the main regionals or for those who just missed out. This event is hosted in July at Luton. Qualifying times and further information can be found here.
NATIONAL LEVEL
Talented swimmers will then progress to national level. There are three national events held each year:
1. British Championships
This event is held in April and is for the top swimmers in Britain who compete for a place on the world championship, Commonwealth or Olympic team. Information for this event including qualifying times will be posted on the British Swimming events page.
2. British Summer Championships
This end of season championships sees the top swimmers in Britain race against each other in all events. It takes place across six days each season with further information found on the British Swimming events page.
3. Swim England Summer Championships
This end of season competition forms part of the British Swimming champs where the next ranked swimmers at Swim England affiliated clubs – or those who have chosen to be ranked as an English swimmer – are invited to compete at the Nationals. The event runs at the start of August. Further information on the championships can be found here.
BEYOND ...
With some hard work, commitment and absolute passion for the sport then a swimmer could reach European, world, commonwealth or Olympic level. Watford will work with British Swimming if a swimmer is predicted to reach this level of competition.
