Swim England Artistic Swimming

The home of artistic swimming in England

Reduced spectator capacity for Artistic Swimming National Age Group Champs

Swim England has been forced to reduce the capacity for the Artistic Swimming National Age Group Championships as the spectator seating has been removed.

The event is taking place at the GL1 Leisure Centre in Gloucester on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 March.

However, Swim England was recently informed that all the seats had been removed from the venue in a decision which ‘was out of the national governing body’s control’.

Having explored all the viable options, a maximum of 100 spectators will be allowed to attend at any given session but they will be sat on the concrete tribunes with no seats available.

All tickets which had been purchased already will therefore be cancelled and refunded.

Swim England is to allocate free tickets to competing clubs on a proportional basis taking into account the number of athletes entered into the championships per specific session.

Clubs will be responsible for collecting the ticket wristbands when they arrive at the venue and allocating them to their club spectators for each session at the event.

They can be swapped during the sessions with another spectator and that exchange will be facilitated by the front of house and security teams to ensure the spectator capacity does not exceed 100.

Championships will go ahead

Ekaterina Boyd, Swim England head of events, said: “We were recently informed by Aspire Trust, the venue operator, that the spectator seats had been removed at the venue.

“Unfortunately, this decision was out of our control and came too late for us to source another venue for the event.

“After careful consideration and looking at all possible options, we have decided the Championships will go ahead as planned but within the parameters set upon us by the venue operators.

“We appreciate this is very disappointing for all involved.

“However, we have been working hard behind the scenes, together with the venue operator, to develop a safe, legal alternative to enable us to run the Championships.

“As spectators will be seated on concrete tribunes, we advise bringing a cushion or similar. No camping or portable chairs will be permitted.

“We sincerely apologise for this enforced late change and any inconvenience caused and appreciate everyone’s support in helping us to run the event smoothly.

“Good luck to all the athletes and clubs competing at the Championships.”

Clubs will be contacted by the Swim England events team with regards their ticket allocations.

All ticket and programme refunds will be actioned immediately and payments returned within 14 days.

A free digital programme will also be available ahead of the event for download.

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