Counties, Regionals and Nationals

Counties, Regionals, and Nationals Explained

County Championships

Counties is the 1st of 3 tiers involved in enabling swimmers to achieve a successful racing campaign.

Held (normally) on the 2nd and 4th weekend of January at. This competition accepts the fastest swimmers from a range of clubs across the county and is a long course competition (in a 50m pool, rather than a 25m pool)

The age groups consist of 10/11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and, 17+, at the end of the year.

There are qualification times for this event and swimmers must have achieved those times from a level 4 or higher competition within a year from December-December.

This meet runs heats and finals for 50s and 100s. This means the fastest 8 swimmers in the heats for a 50m or a 100m event in each age group can race each other again to win medals and in some case trophies!

*Note, most events will have a max number of swimmers who can enter an event, a swimmer may achieve the qualification time, but could still miss out due to the event being populated by faster swimmers.

Regional Championships

Regionals is the 2nd tier and involves a wider range of clubs, therefore it is harder to qualify for this competition with faster qualifying times. For TSC we fall into the Southeast region. Just like counties there are heats and finals for the fastest 8 swimmers in 50m and 100m events with the inclusion of finals for 200m events.

Regionals is split into 2 competitions: Winter and Summer.

Winter regionals is swum in a 25m pool in Winchester, on the first weekend of November (normally). Qualifying times can be achieved in a level 1, 2, and 3 swim meet. All swimmers are grouped together for this meet, so there is only one qualifying time for all ages. However there are finals for 16 and under and 17+.

Summer regionals is swum in a 50m pool and is also split into 2: Youth and Senior.

Youth regionals (F=11-14, M=11-15) is held at Winchester. (Normally) during the 2nd last weekend of April and the 2nd weekend of May.

Senior Regionals (F=15+, M= 16+) is held at Wycombe and spread over 4 days during the last weekend of April, which is a bank holiday, the meet runs Friday evening-Monday evening.

National Championships

The National competitions are the final tier and the hardest competitions to qualify for. It involves competing against swimmers from swimming clubs across the whole of Great Britain. Swimmers can final for all events except the 800 and 1500 freestyle. Swimmers must have achieved qualification times within a year, EXCEPT summer nationals.

There are 3 major national competitions a season:

Short Course Nationals is swum in a 25m pool in Ponds forge, Sheffield, in the middle of December, this is a 4-day meet with qualification times that must be achieved at a level 2 swim meet. Often has 2 qualification times, 1 for under 18’s and 1 for 18+.

British Swimming Championships/Trials take place during the 1st week of April and is a 6-day competition. This competition is swum in a 50m pool. This is the hardest competition to qualify for as the competition involves Olympic, World and Commonwealth champions all racing each other to secure a chance to be picked for that summer’s major international competition. Qualifying times must be achieved at a level 1 swim meet.

Summer Nationals

Summer Nationals is split into 2: British and English. Swimmers must qualify within a qualifying period which is 2 months from the middle of March to the middle of May. To do this, swimmers must have competed in a level 1 swim meet, and be ranked within the top 44 Swimmers of their age group in an event.

British summer nationals will invite the top 24 swimmers per event in each age group with English summer nationals inviting the next 20. British summer nationals takes place during the last week of July and English summer nationals take place during the first week of August.