National Development camp to be held at Commonwealth Games venue

Three hundred swimmers selected for phase two of Swim England’s National Development Programme are to train at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games venue.

They will be taking part in a development camp – the first to be held poolside since 2019 – at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre on Sunday 22 May.

The 13 to 14 years olds plus coaches will be organised into six zonal teams, with 50 swimmers and up to nine coaches in each group.

They will take part in two long course pool sessions – one in the Commonwealth Games 10-lane competition pool and the other in the six-lane training facility at Sandwell.

The camp will concentrate on stroke and turn skill development as well as working on land training activities.

There will also be a Q&A session with two elite swimmers.

Each of the six groups will have a dedicated head coach, while there will also be team manager and sports science and sports medicine support working across all zones.

Mike Parker, Swim England national talent officer, said: “We’re really excited to be able to be holding our first poolside development camp since 2019 at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre.

Progress to podium success

“The online sessions we have been holding have been extremely useful during a time when we were unable to visit venues but we’re really looking forward to engaging face-to-face with this cohort and helping to develop their swimming skills.

“We are endeavouring to give them a fun, educational and motivating day which will give them the process tools to progress to podium success now and in the future.

“We’re putting considerable investment into this extremely important group and we’re confident they will relish the chance to swim at the venue for this summer’s Commonwealth Games.”

Up to 25 male and 25 female swimmers have been picked per zone, with long course times achieved and recorded on the Swim England database between 12 April and 5 December 2021 considered as part of the selection process.

The highest-ranked swimmer has been chosen in each Olympic event and further selections have been made from the second and third ranked positions until the maximum numbers per camp were achieved.

If swimmers had an equal FINA points ranking, then both have been selected.

Swimmers in multiple-ranked events have been chosen on their highest-ranked event only.

Short course times, including Level X, have been considered when making the final selections and any exceptional performances have been added at the Swim England National Talent Team’s discretion.