IAPS National Swimming Finals
On Saturday 6th June 2020, the London Aquatics Centre should have been alive with action with the national swimming finals. However, unfortunately due to coronavirus, the finals were cancelled this year!
This month we look back at the 2019 finals and ahead to 2021!
IAPS’s swimming competition is the largest event organised throughout the year. Schools must first enter a qualifying gala in their local area in the spring term. In 2019 there were 40 qualifying galas that were held across the country with over 4,600 competitors from 285 schools taking part in one. All the results from the qualifiers are submitted nationally and the top 20 swimmers in each race, qualify for the finals.
Schools and competitors were notified that they had qualified at the end of April. They had 6 weeks to perfect their swimming technique and make all the arrangements to travel to the finals.
On Saturday, 8 June 2019, 1500 swimmers woke up early across the country with the finals ahead of them. They all travelled to the London Aquatics centre and arrived with swarms of spectators in toe - 3000 spectators to be precise, all ready to cheer their competitors loud and clear, encouraging them to swim their hearts out.
One competitor told us: “I’m a bit nervous but very excited too. I never thought I’d swim at the Olympic pool… My dad says it’s a bit like playing football at Wembley, but I think it’s better.” Not only had schools travelled from across the UK, but from abroad as well. It was a pleasure to welcome competitors from Kenya for the first time – they had travelled over 6000km to be there! Fortunately, they had had a few days to recover from their flight and do some last minute training before taking part! The girls relay races kicked off the day followed by their individual races. As the venue fell silent for the first race, the pressure of what was ahead proved too much for one competitor. As she waited for the gun to start the race, she false started. The rules state that she should have been disqualified but we just couldn’t do that to the young competitor. She had invested everything on making it to this stage, so we let her climb out and restart with the other competitors.
The morning progressed but we were suddenly hit with a technical glitch with the timing equipment which caused a 45 minutes delay. However, after excellent reorganising and great teamwork from the volunteers poolside, we were able to bring the races back on time for the boys’ session to start. On being told there might be a delay, one coach said “well, that’s swimming, isn’t it? No problem. We’ll just check out the venue and soak up the atmosphere.”
The girls also had a wonderful surprise when Tom Daley appeared on poolside. He happily posed for selfies with competitors and wished them luck for their races. One competitor was rather pleased to have met Tom Daley; “I met Tom Daley… I met Tom Daley. I can’t believe it. I met Tom Daley… oh, I’ve got to go and swim now… I met Tom Daley!”
The boys races went ahead without any glitches in the afternoon, relay races first before we ended the day at 6pm with the individuals.
One piece of technology that didn’t let us down was the scanning app for the spectator’s tickets at the door, which meant the spectators could enter quickly when the doors opened to take prime seats in the venue. The spectators also got to enjoy a fly over from the Red Arrows whilst they queued. (We would like to say that we booked these however they were on their way to Trooping the Colour in London!)
Every year the standard of swimming improves immensely. All we ask of the competitors is they give it their all and enjoy the experience – well, they did not disappoint. The spectators had the pleasure of watching countless records broken and endless swimmers achieving new PBs. One parent said; “We’ve all had a really good day. No winners but some of the girls smashed their PBs and they’ve had a brilliant morning. The atmosphere has been amazing and we’ve enjoyed the competition. Thank you for organising it. It’s a great event and we hope to come back again next year.”
You can find all of the results on our website: https://iaps.uk/sport/swimming.html
These particular results are password protected but your school will be able to give you the IAPS password.
An event as big as the finals are not possible without an army of officials and volunteers. Over 50 officials poolside and 30 volunteers around the venue helped with roles throughout the day to ensure that the event ran smoothly. We couldn’t put an event this size on without them. One spectator said “It’s been a pleasure to be here. Great event and really good organisation. Thank you.”
We were disappointed to cancel the swimming finals this summer but the health and safety of the competitors, spectators, officials and volunteers is our utmost concern. The results from the qualifiying round galas from the spring term are now available on our website to see where you placed: https://iaps.uk/sport/swimming.html
We aim to be back next year and hope that the finals will be even bigger and better than ever before!
