Figures draw revealed ahead of Swim England's first national event of 2024

Athletes, clubs, coaches, officials and volunteers are gearing up for the first Swim England national event of 2024 this weekend.

The GoCardless Swim England Artistic Swimming National Age Group Championships continues as the national governing bodies traditional curtain raiser with more than 170 athletes from 21 clubs set to compete at this year’s edition at the K2 in Crawley.

The two-day event takes place on Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 March where the best artistic swimmers aged from 9-16 years old will battle it out for 12 national titles.

Six different events are held at the Championships which is going to be judged on the new artistic swimming rules for the first time. 

The action begins with the all-important figures competition where athletes complete four figures that increase in difficulty for each age group (12 & Under and Youth). The total of the figures scores for each athlete are added to their respective routine scores later in the competition.

Figures are drawn ahead of the event each year and this year’s figures are as follows:

12 & Under category

Compulsories: Straight Leg Ballet Leg, Barracuda

In addition to the compulsory figures, Group 2 has been selected meaning each swimmer will also be expected to perform:

• Water Drop, Swordfish

Youth category

Section B has been selected meaning each swimmer will be expected to perform:

• Whip Continuous Spin 720, Saturn, Venus, Albatross Spin up 360

Following the figures event, the top 12 highest scoring competitors will compete in the solo events and the 12 highest ranking duets will be invited to take part in the duet competition.

There’s also the mixed duet, free team and new for 2024 the free combination competition then promises to show off the creativity of the athletes and coaches within their routines.

You can read the full format for the Championships here.

How to follow the action

Following the figures event, the top 12 competitors will compete in the solo events and the 12 highest ranking duets will be invited to take part in the duet competition.

There’s also the mixed duet, free team and new for 2024 the free combination competition then promises to show off the creativity of the athletes and coaches within their routines.

You can read the full format for the Championships here.

Reports throughout the weekend will be published on the artistic swimming hub of the Swim England website and updates will also be posted on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the hashtags #SEArtistic and #ArtisticSwimming.

For those looking to attend the event, spectator tickets are available to purchase online until 12 noon on Friday 8 March before going back on sale on venue across the weekend. Event merchandise will also be available to purchase in Crawley.

A live scoreboard for the competition will be uploaded here and event photography will be taken by Will Johnston Photography.

You can see the full weekend schedule below.