| Competition Help | |||||||
| Ages | Helping | Notification | Organisation | Preparation | Travelling | Types of Competition | |
| Internal Competitions | Inter Club Galas | Leagues | Open Meets | Counties | Nationals |
These competitions are open to swimmers of ten years and older who have an appropriate qualifying time and are prepared to pay the entry fee. We usually nominate a selection of away open meets every year for our swimmers to attend. Some open meets are described as 'Designated'. This means that they have been approved by the District Authority for recognition of National Qualifying Times (NQTs). The Promoters must have a proven record of organising a good standard of competition and are able to call upon the necessary number of qualified officials to run the Meet.
Swimmers who wish to compete in Open Meets need National registration with the ASA. Click here for a Registration Form.
Open meets are usually run on a card system. Each accepted entry receives a card (pink for girls, blue for boys)
giving all details of the swim. These cards have to be 'posted' before the start of the session to enable the
organisers to know exactly who has turned up to swim. If you don't post your card on time, you can't swim!
Heats are usually swum with swimmers of similar submitted entry times. The faster swimmers in the heats may
then swim the final, but in some events, usually the long distances, the event is decided solely on the time
achieved in the heats. These are Heat Declared Winners (HDW) events.
The finals, and sometimes the fastest heat in the HDW events, are swum in spearhead formation. This simply
means that the fastest swimmers are in the middle lanes of the pool with the slowest on the outside.
"A" Graded
These are for the swimmers with the highest achievements and entries are accepted by the organising club on a
basis of the fastest entry times.
We host our own "A" graded designated age group open meet in June. This is held over a Friday evening and all day the following Saturday. This year for the first time it is being held in the 50m pool at Aldershot.
"B/C" Graded
These are organised on time bands so that the fastest swimmers cannot enter. This gives a wider range of
swimmers a chance to win medals. These meets are very good for development of the younger swimmers and also for
older swimmers who are not able to swim in "A" graded meets. For all the strokes except relays in the "B/C" open
meets you will be given a speeding ticket and not be placed for swimming faster than a designated time.
In January or February we host our "B/C" open meet over two weekends and a "B/C" Sprint meet in October.