Artistic Swimming Chair Appointment

The Region are delighted to announce the appointment of Daniel Vernis as our new Artistic Swimming Chair.

We would like to extend him a very warm welcome and thank him both for joining our volunteer workforce.

The Region would like to thank Debbie Harris, for all her hard work over the last few years. Debbie has been an valued and highly skilled member of the Region’s volunteer workforce and will be missed by us all.

Daniel’s involvement in synchronised swimming started in 2016, when his daughter decided to try synchro and she joined the Synchro Academy at EDSC (Erith and District). The engagement started as the “designated driver” waiting in the standings and watching the team practice from the pool viewing gallery. Impressed by the effort involved, performance and choreography of the synchro routines and having a swimming background, Daniel offered to come and assist from the poolside. Slowly, with materials and books provided by the club, he started working towards a judging qualification, and at the same time managing a growing Software Consulting business.

Consequently between 2017 and 2021, after dedicating himself to the task, he achieved grades 1, 2 and 3 Judging levels. In parallel, due to the club needs, Daniel also started as an assistant coach in 2019 and became a Synchronised Swimming accredited Coach by 2022.

Involvement with the London Region started in 2019, where he “has found a great team of coaches and team managers, a really good structure, with ambitious goals and ideals”. The Artistic Swimming community in the London Region managed to get together and create a good programme that allows performing swimmers to achieve their potential. In the future, this framework will be extended to more swimmers, increasing the development squads. This will have a positive impact on all clubs in the region, and it will show good results in the national competitions.

Daniel thinks that the programme put in place by the London Region is quite impressive, and he would like to increase the number of coaches and swimmers involved in it. Long term goals are a strong presence on the podiums on all national competitions, with regional teams; getting more support from the local community; discuss the plan with the swimming centres and push the Artistic Swimming – Learn To Swim Programme to more pools to increase visibility.