National Championships

This the highest level of Age Group swimming nationally and should be the main target for all age swimmers. Entry qualification times are set so that only around the top 32 swimmers in the 50, 100 & 200 metre events and 24 and 16 in the longer distance events in the country in each age group are likely to qualify. Attaining these times is a major achievement.

The National Age Group Championships (girls 11-13 years and boys 11-14 years) are usually held at the end of July / beginning of August, and the National Youth Championships (girls 14 - 17 years and boys 15-18 years) follow straight on from these. The last chance to get qualifying times for National entry will be the date of the last day of the NER’s in mid June. At the National Championships all events have finals (except 800/1500 free), and are used for the selection of swimmers for the British Swimming & NER development programmes.

British Championships

For girls 13 and over & boys 15 and over these are the elite target meets. They act as trials for the major international events (Olympic Games, World Championships, European Championships, Commonwealth Games). Also, they act as trials for the major international youth and junior events at which British Teams compete. The British Long Course Championships normally take place 15 weeks prior to the major international event. The British Short Course Championships are normally held 2/3 weeks after the major international long course event for that year. Therefore, there may be minor changes to the competition calendar year by year.