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