Dates when inaugural Festival of Swimming races will take place revealed

The dates when the inaugural ‘Festival of Swimming’ races are to take place across the Swim England regions have been revealed.

Organised by British Swimming, Swim England, Scottish Swimming and Swim Wales, the festival aims to give as many youngsters as possible the opportunity to return to racing.

More than a dozen independently-licensed, accredited long course meets will take place with a heat-declared-winner format across the Swim England regions, Scottish Swimming districts and Swim Wales zones.

Events in the festival will officially begin from 16 July and run through until early August.

Swim England has confirmed its regions will stage races between Saturday 17 July and Sunday 8 August.

The festival of Swimming aims to involve as many athletes as possible so swimmers will be limited to entering one meet only.

Entrants are expected to race at their nearest venue where possible.

Exciting prospect

Para-swimming events will be included in as many meets as practical.

Times recorded at each meet will be aggregated to produce an ongoing, consolidated British/Home Nations leaderboard in the following six age groups – with age determined at 31 December 2021: 13 years, 14 years, 15 years, 16 years, 17 years and 18 years and over.

Leaderboards will be run across 100m, 200m and 400m races only, although meet organisers will have the flexibility to offer other events.

Para-swimming leaderboards for the same 100m, 200m and 400m-focused events will be produced on a multi-classification basis.

Venues for the Swim England meets will be announced shortly alongside detailed entry information.

Grant Robins, Swim England Head of Talent – Swimming, said: “This is an exciting prospect for all involved given the last year. 

“The opportunity to see friends and colleagues, to race and to compete is why we love swimming and this combined initiative, with the tremendous support of the regions, is going to be exciting for all that get involved.”

In the Scottish Swimming districts, events will take place from 16 to 18 July, while Swim Wales has confirmed that meets are likely to run over three days between 17 and 25 July. 

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