Why do we have the Kingston Sprints – This is our major fund raising event of the year and it requires a little effort from all of us to make it a success. For our new members, this is an ‘all day’ event where we invite teams and compete for medals. Several hundred people will be there – swimmers, spectators and officials. It is our chance to build up funds in order that we can set the membership fees for the coming year. Each year 8 -10 other clubs come to compete in the Kingston Sprints (which will be held this year for the first time in Larkhall Leisure Centre).
What is the Kingston Sprints – For any new swimmers & parents the Sprints is a graded competition, that is to say it is for swimmers whose time for a given stroke is not faster than a set ‘time band’. This gives swimmers a chance of achieving a medal if they can get close to the set time (but not faster).
We set the time bands to suit our own swimmers Personal Best times, and we invite swimmers from other clubs to compete. Other clubs may have swimmers whose times are faster than those set by us and they will not compete. However their swimmers with slower times will then have a chance for a medal.
When we have all the entries in for the event we organise them into heats ranging from slowest to fastest swimmer (heat 1 being the slower swimmers and the last heat being the fastest swimmers). Also within each heat the swimmers are in order of fastest to slowest by lane order i.e. lane 3,4,2,5,1 & 6. Even though the slower swimmers may not have a chance to gain a medal they do get the opportunity to compete against swimmers from other clubs with similar times, and they benefit from the experience of competing against them.
Once the swimmers have completed their races on the day their times will be recorded, and they will then be ordered slowest to fastest. Those swimmers who swim faster than the set ‘time band’ are deemed to have ‘Swam Too Fast’ and they receive a memento (a swim cap), and the next six swimmers then receive medals (1st place to 6th place). If anyone would like any further clarification of this please ask.
What we need you to do – You will be asked to help out with donations (large or small) for Tombola and Raffle prizes ahead of the event. On the day we will need donations of food which we sell i.e. filled rolls, sandwiches, cakes and biscuits, home baking, crisps etc.
We also need people to work with selling programmes, raffle tickets, tombola stall, swimwear stall, and selling cakes, tea, coffee and soft drinks. If you can help, please let us know.
This is a great fun day even if your child is not competing so please come along if you can and enjoy yourselves and support your club. Watch the club desk for posters and more details.
What you need to do now – At this stage you must return the entry form currently being handed out at the club desk, and indicate which events your child wishes to swim.
If you do not return the form your child will not be entered. Even if you are not coming to the Kingston Sprints for any reason, please return the form to indicate that your child will not be taking part.
If there is an event not marked for your child’s participation it could be for a number of reasons – he/she may not have ever swam that event in a gala or a time trial and we do not have a current time for entry; or his/her time may in our view be too slow (the competition takes as long as the slowest swimmer in each race); or he/she may be a new swimmer and we have no times at all for him/her. In either respect if you think your child should have an invitation and did not receive one please ask. If he/she would like to do a swim not currently marked for participation then please speak to a coach.
