Swimming clubs go to great lengths for competition
HART Swimming Club, in collaboration with Hart Leisure Centre, hosted the Hart SC Autumn Open Meet 2021 at the weekend.
The two-day event saw 350 swimmers from 22 competitive clubs visit Fleet to take part in a number of races.
This was the first major swimming event held in the competition pool at the £23million leisure centre since Covid-19 restrictions eased.
Swimmers from Hampshire clubs such as Hart, Alton, Andover, Eastleigh, Farnham and Fareham competed to try and gain Hampshire County Championship qualification times, for the championships that kick-off in January.
Swimmers competed in their age groups across a range of strokes and distances, aiming to achieve new personal bests and/or qualification times for their local County, Regional and National Championships. An unprecedented number of swimmers gained County Champs Qualification, and also several recorded National Qualification times for the Swim England Winter National Event, taking place in early December.
Hart’s Emma
Jones,
Katherine
Cairney and Tamsin Wheeler qualified for the South East Regional Winter Championships this month, and Cairney also qualified for the Swim England Winter National Championships.
Head coach Darren Buchan said: “Everyone at Hart SC couldn’t be prouder of Emma, Katherine and Tamsin on their qualifications for the Regional Champs and Katherine on her qualification for Nationals. These are hard events to qualify for and, hence, it’s a massive achievement. Really well done.
“It was just awesome to hold an Open Event again at Hart Leisure Centre, its such a massive event.
“Its why all our swimmers dedicate so much time to training, mornings and evenings every day. It’s been a long time since they swam in such a big event and I’m delighted it has gone so well. Congrats to everyone, the coaching staff are all very proud.”
Heidi Christensen, Meet Secretary at Hart, said: “Pulling off an event as large as this in these challenging times is no mean feat. Weeks of organising and planning is required with an army of volunteers behind us to ensure the event is successful.
“We had over 50 volunteers involved. Thank you to all our volunteers helping over the weekend, we really couldn’t do this without you.”
Hart chairman Spencer Farmer said: “An event such as this brings some of the best competitive swimmers from across the south coast to our town.
“It’s a real honour to see swimmers across a wide range of ages and disciplines compete – there was a lot of smiling faces.
“In addition, an event as big as this also bring a lot of added benefits to local businesses such as hotels and restaurants as many swimmers and their families are here for the entire weekend. We are always looking to work with local businesses for our events, so do get in touch if you want to get involved next time.”
Hart also had representation at the Swim England Masters National Championships, held annually at Pond’s Forge in Sheffield.
The Masters category includes senior swimmers aged between 18 and 25 years old, as well as Masters swimmers in the 25 years+ category competing in five-year incremental age groups across all the strokes and distances.