Due to the ongoing COVID restrictions, continued uncertainty around the exact timetable of easing of lockdown, and in recognition that relatively few swimmers are back in training, the meet has been scaled back, with the ultimate focus being senior selections for international competition later this year. The meet will now be reduced in length by one day, running from Wednesday 14th to Sunday 18th April.Â
Given this very specific focus of the event, we feel we can no longer call this a British Championships, hence the revision of the event title to the 2021 British Swimming Selection Trials.
We have also removed the junior-specific element of the Trials, given the overwhelming majority of young swimmers have not been able to train for the best part of the last 12 months, that there has been no announcement from LEN or FINA around dates and venues for the 2021 European Junior or World Junior Championships, school term dates around the Easter period are still fluid and variable, and our ability to reasonably select any junior representative teams has been severely compromised.
That being said, this will not exclude junior swimmers from entering the event – but there will be no dedicated Junior or Transition finals. For younger athletes, our primary concern now is to continue planning to facilitate a series of ‘restart’ meets to give as many athletes as possible an opportunity to return to racing through the summer. Significant discussions have already taken place with our Home Nation partners to provide opportunities that the whole of the swimming fraternity can buy into in July – this is likely to focus on a more regionalised ‘festival of swimming’ rather than a single performance-focussed event.
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