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An ‘exciting new concept’ for swimmers to pit themselves against other swimmers from across the country without leaving their home pool has been officially launched by Swim England. Level X Racing gives club swimmers the opportunity to take part in a series of time-trials using all strokes at varying distances, the times from which can be submitted to Swim England rankings.

Tom Baster, chairperson of the Swim England Swimming Leadership Group, said the initial feedback from the pilot events staged had been well received: “We know our clubs and members that are back in the water have missed taking part in galas and events due to the coronavirus pandemic. Level X Racing is a fun opportunity for them to practice some racing skills in the absence of those club, county, regional and national events. The feedback we have had so far from the test sessions has been extremely encouraging. Everyone who has taken part has loved the chance to test themselves against their team-mates and we hope clubs across the country will engage with this exciting new concept.”

The first phase of Level X Racing begins on 23 October with staggered submission times to enable swimmers to build up their training to the longer distance events. A second phase of the competition will be held in 2021 in the hope more clubs would be able to take part. After each distance is completed, the quickest swimmers in each age group will feature in a national leader board published across Swim England’s website and social media channels. The first leader board will be all 50m and 100m swims across all strokes, together with 100m Individual Medley. Times must be submitted to rankings by 24 November and leader boards will then be published on 30 November.

George Wood, Swim England Sport Development Director, said that leader boards for all ages, as well as para swimmers and hearing-impaired swimmers, would make Level X accessible for everyone: “We appreciate that not all our clubs are back in the water due to pools still being closed and we are doing all we can to try and rectify that situation. The leader boards add an extra dimension to these time trials that all swimmers will have been missing this year. We hope the introduction of the leader boards will encourage even more to get involved. We’re looking forward to seeing Level X Racing and the leader boards develop, and hearing stories from clubs across the country.”

Swimmers wanting to take part in Level X Racing must be a Swim England Category 2 member in order to participate. To encourage as many swimmers as possible to get involved, current Category 1 members who take part in Level X will be automatically upgraded free of charge. This temporary Category 2 membership will only be valid until 31 December 2020.

Find out the full information on Level X Racing here.

Issued 15 October 2020

Swim England has confirmed that, due to ongoing coronavirus restrictions, the usual January/February time slot for County Championships is now highly unlikely. The event will be suspended until later in 2021, with a planned alternative window from late May until 18 July 2021, and a further racing opportunity being opened up for counties later in the year so that older swimmers sitting exams will be given the chance to participate at an appropriate time. Counties and regions will be consulted to ensure that participation in the Regional Open Water Championships is not affected by this decision.

Swim England’s Swimming Leadership Group has made the decision following consultations with volunteers who organise the County events and Regional Swimming Managers, and taking into account the health and wellbeing of everyone involved.

Tom Baster, Chair of the Swimming Leadership Group, said: “We are aware how much the County Age Group Swimming Championships mean to the entire swimming community – they are excellent competitions, organised by highly-committed volunteers and officials. Staging the events in their original timeframe would result in championship weekends that are significantly reduced in size and number of competitors, owing to social distancing laws. Obviously, we understand that there will be some frustrations at this delay but the most important thing is the safety of everyone involved. The swimming community is committed to doing everything it can to ensure that these events happen in 2021 wherever possible. We hope by creating a later calendar window for the events, it will enable us to achieve this and that everyone understands the reasoning behind this decision.”

Swim England has also confirmed the current plan is to run Regional Championships within their usual window and it will be making every effort to enable this to happen. Over the coming months, meetings will be held with Regional and County Swimming Coordinators on a regular basis to put plans in place for the revised county window. These will be communicated with members when details are finalised.

Swim England will soon be publishing details of its full Return to Competition strategy, including plans for the phased return of Open Meets. The first part of this features Level X Racing, which will be fully launched next week following completion of the pilot scheme.

Issued 7 October 2020

Ahead of its official launch in October, eleven clubs have been selected to pilot Swim England’s new Level X swimming competition. With competitions cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, Swim England has been keen to ensure club swimmers of all ages are able to work towards competitive activity. The Level X event will enable swimmers to compete against others from across the country within the comforts of their own club training sessions and submit times to Swim England rankings for races at varying distances with leaderboards to be published by Swim England throughout the competition.

Guildford City SC, City of Coventry, Long Eaton, Basildon and Phoenix SC, City of Norwich, Harrogate, Flitwick Dolphins, Stocksbridge Pentaqua, Camden Swiss Cottage, Trafford Metro and Taunton Deane have been chosen to try out all elements of Level X, which will include timing the races, compiling the results in the correct format and uploading results to Swim England rankings. Swim England Club Growth and Programme Manager, Becky Walker, said: “We’re excited to be testing Level X and ensuring the whole process runs smoothly ahead of the official launch. The pilot clubs were chosen based on those which had completed the return to the water survey to indicate they were back in training and include a mix of larger and smaller clubs, those with paid coaches and volunteer-run clubs. They also have access to Sports Systems and Hytek to test the process of entering the results to rankings. This is a brand new concept so we’re looking forward to seeing how the testing goes and can’t wait to officially open up Level X to all our clubs and members.”

Lee Spindlow, head coach of Guildford City SC said Level X was exactly what is needed at this time. He added: “Being part of this pilot is exciting for all our members. Our management team, coaches, swimmers and parents have come together and worked hard as a team to get the club back up and running and the introduction of competition is exactly what we need to keep the wave of enthusiasm going. During this challenging period, our swimmers have learned some valuable lessons in taking responsibility for their day-to-day actions, being adaptable in our training environment and taking ownership over their respective actions. To see them put this in to practice in a racing environment is actually really exciting for all our coaches.”

Further details will be shared in October with Level X activity commencing later that month and the all-new Level X Leaderboards launching soon after.

Issued 28 September 2020