Swim England recently launched it’s new Strategy – Access Aquatics (pdf) and their vision is;
“Championing a healthy and
successful nation through swimming”
Swimming has been scientifically proven to have many health benefits and continues to be a popular choice of activity with around 4 million people in England swimming at least twice each month. Within our Swim England clubs there are currently around 20,000 adult Club Train and Club Compete members – and over 1500 of those live in the North East.
The NE Region have not hosted any masters events since before the pandemic, and we are therefore delighted to be bringing a fantastic event to the Sunderland Aquatics Centre (50m) in partnership with AP Race Events.
AP Race is an organisation built on a passion to make swimming a more exciting sport and provide more opportunities for everyone in the swimming community. AP Race Events aim to run the most exciting swimming competitions they possibly can and provide more opportunities for swimmers to do what they love… RACE! They want to make sure that your experience of swimming competition is as exciting and rewarding as possible, and they have already successfully delivered events in London (London International 2023) and Derby (The first AP Masters Grand Prix – event video)
The AP Race Masters Grand Prix 2024 will take place at one of the Region’s three 50m facilities – Sunderland Aquatics Centre. As an Everyone Active site, Sunderland is a Swim England Water Wellbeing Accredited facility which means it has followed a year-long commitment to ensure it delivers on accessibility and inclusivity requirements and provides the highest standard of consistency and quality of support to customers.
As the home of City of Sunderland swimming club, who host a series of annual competitions for our age group, youth and senior swimmers, and a venue of choice for numerous Northumberland & Durham, Regional & National Championships events, this facility will surely provide the backdrop to an amazing experience for all who take part. AP Race Events tend to do things a little differently to enhance the experience and cause the least disruption possible to lessons programmes and home swimming clubs. For example, this meet will start at 12 noon on Saturday, allowing for the club and county swimming sessions to take place without being cancelled – and also allowing those who are travelling from further afield to arrive on the day of the meet which reduces the extra expense of hotel stays the night before.
The event itself has been timed to precede the British Masters Championships taking part in Swansea from 19-21st April 2024 (link to Swim Wales) – a perfectly placed preparation meet for those heading to Wales. The basic event timings are:
Saturday 9th March – 12-8pm and Sunday 10th March 8am-4pm – for full info – entry links, schedule, accommodation (discounted), qualifying times, entry pack>>> click here
We are also delighted to signpost any of our student community to the “Swim England Student Membership – its just £5!! Check out this link to the student memberships page for those who swim in University clubs that are not affiliated clubs: https://www.swimming.org/members/swim-england-student-membership/
Spectator tickets for this event are FREE OF CHARGE – so get the dates in your diary and prepare to be wowed!
