Surrey Age Group Championships 2024

Safeguarding during the Championships:

Swim England have introduced a change to Wavepower this month that prohibits the use of any mobile, image capturing device or any device that can connect to the internet for any purpose by any person while in the changing rooms. We are implementing this directive at these championships. The changing rooms will be monitored and signs will indicate from where the rule applies. There will be sanctions for anyone breaching this rule. There are no exceptions at all.

Car Parking:

Please use the nursery car park at the bottom of the drive to SSP. All the cameras will be operating on the main car park.

Key dates are as follows:

Closing Date: 17 January 2024
Age at date: 31 December 2024
Times to have been swum on or after: 6 February 2023

Accepted and Rejected Entries:

The accepted entries can be found at this link.

The rejected entries can be found at this link.

Meet Programmes:

20/21 January	3/4 February
Session 1	Session 5
Session 2	Session 6
Session 3	Session 7
Session 4	Session 8

Results:

The full results and the Championship tables can be found on the results page at this link.

Spectators:

We will be hosting swimmers and coaches on poolside in 2024 as we did in 2023. The majority believe that this will generate a better eperience for our County qualifiers. As a result we will be limiting the number of seats available to spectators but there will be no charge for these. We, and I am sure your fellow spectators, would appreciate you vacating a seat once you no longer need it. The seatng will be on a first come first served basis. There will be a barrier at the 25m point beyond which you will need a poolside pass to access or be a swimmer!

Merchandise:

Whilst Fine designs will not be attending the Surrey County Championships 2024, they will still be offering their wide range of commemorative hoodies and t-shirts in their online shop as they did in 2023. With 6 different packages to choose from, they offer the same amount of customisation that is offered in person. They will ship them to your home address, ready for the 2^nd leg of the Championships on the 3^rd and 4^th of February. The website will remain open until the 29^th February 2024 – plenty of time to purchase your garments! Head over to the website at this link.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Fine Designs via their “contact us” page or call 01903 201068.

Official Photographer:

We will be using an official photographer again this year, Simon Roe. He will post the photos taken to his website from which purchases can be made. You can access the gallery of photographs through this link. We will provide an area where photos can be taken of a swimmer with their medal and a County or Regional president when available. A suitable trophy will be provided for purposes of the photo if appropriate.

Awards:

At the present time we have decided, with regret, that we cannot accommodate the formal presentation of medals into the timeline. All medals will be available for collection at the medals desk and there will be a space available for swimmers to have photographs taken with representative trophies and any dignatories attending on the day. We aim to have an Official Photographer attending each weekend.

Volunteers and Officials:

We have set the closing date of 17 January as late as possible in January to allow clubs to hold qualifying meets after Christmas. The consequences of this are:

We only have 2 days to publish the meet programmes and timeline;
We have no time to resolve entry issues after the closing date so any rejections from the portal at that time will not be entered; and
We need officials and volunteers to have registered their willingness to support the swimmers before the closing date. Ideally by Friday 12 January. Once you know your swimmer has a QT, please volunteer; we have never rejected a qualified entry in the last 10 years. Please use the links provided below as soon as possible.

This process worked very well last year with clubs doing test submissions through the portal in the New Year and officials and volunteers registering early. Please can you share this message with your club’s members as soon as possible. Parents may need to bear in mind there are very few spectator seats so a good way to watch the swimming is to volunteer!

Technical Officials may register your willingness to volunteer your time for this event at this link.

Field of Play volunteers may register your willingness to volunteer your time for this event at this link.

Poolside Passes:

We will be using the Swim England poolside pass system, that is used for National competitions, for coaches, team managers and chaperones. The pass should be downloaded at home and brought with you to the meet. We will provide wallets and lanyards. All coaches, team managers and chaperones must be registered with Swim England and have recorded their relevant qualifications in the Swim England systems. We would recommend that passes are applied for early to ensure any missing data is provided ahead of the meet. No-one will be admitted to poolside without a pass.

Chaperones: If a chaperone pass is required, the club (Chairman/Secretary) needs to email Martyn Hudson at Swim England (martyn.hudson@swimming.org) with the members details (name and number) and request they be added to the list of Chaperones. Once added they remain on the list until removed.
Coaches, Team Managers, Chaperones: The pass can be accessed through the member’s individual page on the Swim Engalnd website. Log on using the following path www.swimmingresults.org > members > English/Welsh Member Options and enter your user ID and password to access your membership page. Once onto your individual membership page, select the option “Purchase accreditation for events click here.” You will then see a list of all the Counties and Regions using the on-line pass system. Select the Surrey County event for the day you wish to attend and print your pass at home. You will be charged £10 per day and must pay on-line. If you are attending the whole championship, you will need four separate passes. If any of the requirements are in red, you must correct the data in the relevant Swim England system before you can print your pass.
Level 2 Teachers should submit their poolside pass request by completing the form at this link.
Clubs need to pay for the number of teachers they would like to have on poolside at any one time. You can do this by completing the form at this link. Coaches and team managers will have paid for their passes on-line at Swim England for each day they wish to attend. We will charge your club separately for any L2 Teacher passes ordered.

Field of Play volunteers should submit their poolside pass request by completing the form at this link.

Technical Officials must show their licence to gain access to the venue. Any technical officials in training must apply for a Field of Play pass.

Catering:

Catering is complimentary for technical officials and volunteers who attend both sessions in the day. Coaches can purchase food for any day by completing the Catering Request form at this link. Catering Requests must be made on or before 12 January 2024. We will charge your club separately for any catering ordered.

Dates and Locations:

The dates and venues have changed and are now confirmed as follows:

Date	Venue	Events
20/21 January	Surrey Sports Park (50m)	See Schedule of Events
3/4 February	Surrey Sports Park (50m)	See Schedule of Events

Qualifying Times:

The published Qualifying Times include a separate QT for 17 year old swimmers. This is for entry only. As in previous years, the top age group for the meet is 17 & Over. All races will be seeded and awards will be determined on this basis.

All submitted entry times must be recorded on British Rankings for the course swum. No conversions are permitted for entry. Times from any licensed meet are eligible for entry.

Coaches Forum

We have set the date for the Surrey Coaches Forum as 13 February 2024 at 12:30pm. It will be by Zoom. The purpose of this meeting is to gather feedback from 2024 and to set the programme and approach for 2025. Please pass this invite onto your coaching team. Your competition secretary, who submitted your entry in 2023, has the zoom access details.