As a competitive swimming club, Basingstoke Bluefins has an extensive programme of competition, to enable ALL swimmers to get the opportunity to compete AT THEIR OWN LEVEL.

The club does not enter all competitions with the objective of selecting the strongest possible team to win at all costs. This would inevitably mean the same swimmers competing week after week and others never getting the opportunity

Our competition programme splits into INTERNAL competitions that are restricted to members of our club and EXTERNAL competitions where we compete against teams or individuals from other clubs.

Internal Competitions

Club Championships

Club Championships are held in November/December each year and are open to all members of the club from ASA level 9 teaching groups upwards. The objectives are

• To find the best swimmer in the club
• To provide all entrants with the opportunity to set times are a wide variety of strokes/distances

We utilise the same programme of events as the Hampshire County Championships. In addition to individual medals for each event, we award overall trophies based on British Age Group Points Categories (BAGCATS).

The championships are timed to provide the best opportunity to achieve qualifying times for the Hampshire County Championships held in February and March.

Development Championships

Our Development Championships are held in the spring of each year and are open to all members of the club from ASA level 4 teaching groups upwards. The objective is to be as inclusive as possible and to encourage as many swimmers as possible to compete.

Swimmers who have achieved County Qualifying times are excluded from this competition and all of the events are sprints.

Internal Galas

Internal Galas are intended to introduce new swimmers to competition in a friendly environment and to give swimmers the opportunity to record times under competition conditions. All Internal Galas take place at the Aquadrome Pool and make use of the club's Electronic Timing equipment.

Time Trials

Time Trials are organised monthly on the second Monday of the month (in place of normal training sessions at The Aquadrome). The objective is to test the abilities of all swimmers in training squads on a variety of strokes and distances through the year. Swimmers from training squads at other pools are invited to come along to the Aquadrome for Time Trials.

External Competitions

National, Regional, County Championships

Swimmers from Bluefins compete in championships at all levels. In order to enter any championships, swimmers must record a qualifying time in a suitable competition.

Open Meets

Open Meets are competitions for INDIVIDUALS rather than teams. This means that the club is free to enter as many or as few swimmers into any event, as long as they meet the entry conditions.

Licensed Meets are those whose results get incorporated into the National rankings maintained by the ASA and which can be used for entry into National and Regional Championships.

The entry conditions for Open Meets vary widely. Some are aimed at the top swimmers, others are "graded", with limit times published. In some cases swimmers who go faster than the limit times do not get a medal, typically being awarded some kind og Speeding Ticket.

Bluefins organises a graded Open Meet at Easter each year.

Inter-Club Galas

For the majority of swimmers, Inter Club Saturday night galas are the reason that they join a swimming club, with the combination of competition and the social element of swimming as part of a team.

Bluefins enters swimmers into a number of different leagues:

• Speedo League South (A Team, B Team)
  This is a National competition. The winners of the Speedo League South compete in a National final. We have two teams entered into different divisions.
• Rother League (A Team)
  The Rother League is a varied league involving different programmes and different age groups at each of 4 rounds each year.
• Hants and South Coast Leagues (B Teams)
  Bluefins treats the Hants & South Coast Leagues as a B team competition. This means that we do not necessarily select teams to win and we do not seek to compete in the highest division.
• Thames Water C Grade (C Team)
  This friendly competition broadens the opportunity to swim to those whose primary objective of swimming is to achieve fitness an have some fun. Grade times are set; swimmers who beat the grade time get no points. We select swimmers who have not yet achieved the grade times and if they achieve a personal best and beat the grade time, that is a great result.
• Friendly/Trophy Galas
  From time to time, we participate in one-off events. Most of these events are selected to give a specific group of swimmers the opportunity to swim. Most of them are B and C Team events; the A team swimmers already have plenty of opportunities to swim.

Ideally, we would like to have totally separate squads for different levels of competition. In some age groups, unfortunately, we do not yet have the range of swimmers to allow this. As we grow this will come.