We are excited to announce a new 3 year sponsorship contract with Reuben Rowbotham-Keating.
The 16 year from City of Manchester Aquatic Swim Team ( COMAST) is also a member of the 2022 Swim England Junior Swim Squad. Reuben’s selection to this elite Junior squad followers his superb results at the Swim England Winter Nationals (25M) in Sheffield in December, where he picked up five Junior National titles . Read More >
The National arena Swimming League – Finals Weekend – Cardiff 5th & 6th March 2022
After a forced hiatus in 2021 due to the covid pandemic, the finals of the National arena Swimming League returned to the Cardiff International Pool on the 5th & 6th March. With the return of this popular club competition came all the colour, noise, atmosphere and excitement . From the face paints, fancy dress, and banners to the music, air-horns and chants it was great to see that this fun filled competition once again cover all ages & experience in the 42 event competition. It was great to be back!
Saturday 5th March- B Final
Saturday saw an extremely close and exciting B-Final with Basildon Phoenix coming out on top lifting the title by just 10 points from home club City of Cardiff .
The lead changed many times throughout the 42 events but the Essex based club came through at the end with solid performances across all the age groups. This is a double cause for celebration for Basildon as they were also successful in winning the National arena Junior Swimming League in September 2021.
Basildon head coach Doug Campbell was delighted with his teams’ results especially as this is the clubs first ever appearance in the National Finals .Doug commented “ this is a great result for the club who have made steady progress through the London Region Divisions over the past 5 years . We finished runner-up in the London League Premier Final in December and today all the swimmers stepped up, whether in a relay or individual event, it was a superb team performance.” Doug has previously won the A-Final when he was head coach of Millfield so todays was a step towards winning again with a different team.
Club Chairman, Tom Baster, was delighted with the club and commented “ The club has been on an extraordinary journey since the Basildon Sporting Village 50m pool opened in 2011 and today I am extremely proud of the swimmers, coaches & parents . I would like to thank Basildon Council and Basildon Sporting Village for their support and arena UK and Solo Sports for their sponsorship of this great club competition.”
The stand out performance at the meet came from Swansea’s Medi Harris with her 60.35 in the womens 100m back continuing her recent good form.GB Olympians Dan Jervis ( 200 IM 2.05.51 ) and Harriet Jones ( 100 Fly 60.26) both had comfortable wins.
It’s also about the support at this meet and the award for the top supporters was awarded to Basildon Pheonix who kept the cheers & chanting going through the afternoon . The top relay club competition was also won by Basildon Phoenix
Basildon Phoenix – Top Relay Winners
B Final Results –
Top Age Group Swimmers
Bradley Newman & Medi Harris
Final Points:
Full Results for B Final can be found here https://results.swimming.org/swimming/results/2022/naslb/
More images can be found here https://www.nationalswimmingleague.org.uk/2022-league-finals/ or here https://www.dropbox.com/sh/tvy869y4n13ozak/AADxrSwRRu-U7bYhBg9l3lmba?dl=0
Sunday 6th March – Cup Final
Mount Kelly, representing the Western League Division, won the 52nd Cup Final of the National arena Swimming League on Sunday 6th March in Cardiff. After a forced hiatus in 2021 due to the covid pandemic, the Devon based boarding school retained the title that they won in 2020.
Mount Kelly were convincing winners, taking top spot with 359 points from runners-up Millfield (320) with Wycombe & District rounding out the top three places with 266. Mount Kelly’s strength showed all the way through with top 3 places in 33 of the 42 events, they also won the relay challenge trophy.
Emma Collings-Barnes, director of swimming at Mount Kelly, commented “this win today has given a great buzz for everyone on the team especially after all the issues around covid and the lack of racing for so long. I would like to thank all the staff at the school for their support especially over the last few years and a special mention to my assistant director of Swimming, Greg King-Lamb who has run this programme whilst I have been on maternity leave. This competition is so special to win as it involves so many great swimmers & clubs from across the country. Today has been a great sign that swimming for all levels and age groups is back in this country . Thanks to the National League organisers and arena UK for putting together a superb event today and running the League rounds through the year.”
Cup Final Results –
Top Age Group Swimmers
Final Points:
Full Results for Cup Final can be found here https://results.swimming.org/swimming/results/2022/nasla/result1.pdf
More images can be found here https://www.nationalswimmingleague.org.uk/2022-league-finals/ or here https://www.dropbox.com/sh/tvy869y4n13ozak/AADxrSwRRu-U7bYhBg9l3lmba?dl=0
All in all a great weekend was had by all with some great results, it was great to be to a live event.
Read about Dan Jones and Alys Thomas, and the dog’s weekend at the Welsh Winter Championships –
Written By Dan Jones –
” The Swim Wales Winter Championships were held in Swansea from the 17/12/2021 – 19/12/2021. For 2021 the event was swam long course to provide a Commonwealth Games 
nomination opportunity in line with the Swim Wales Commonwealth Games Nomination policy.
Alys is a partnered athlete with Arena UK and Solo Sports, and as Alys & I train together at the Swim Wales HPC we also live together being in a long-term relationship. Arena are also kind enough to support me in the lead up to Commonwealth Games which is a great help & very much appreciated.
With Alys’ performances at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, she has already achieved the nomination standard times for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Alys & I were competing over all 3 days in Swansea, swimming in the 50/100/200 butterfly & 50/200 freestyle for Alys then the 50/100 freestyle & 50 butterfly for myself.
We are pleased to announce a sponsorship deal with Great Britain’s Olympian Laura Stephens.
Laura has been a regular member of Great Britain’s senior swimming team over the past four years and has competed at Olympic, World, European & Commonwealth level . At the Tokyo Olympics Laura was a semi-finalist in her main event, the 200m butterfly, after making the final at the 2021 European Championships. Laura picked up her first European gold as a member of the successful women’s 4 x 100 Medley Relay Team at the same European Championships in Budapest .
Laura has recently moved her training base to the Loughborough NTC after many successful years at Plymouth Leander SC . Laura will work with coach David Hemmings and is targeting the 2022 World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan from 13th – 29th May and the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham from 28 July – 8 August . arena UK are looking forward to working with and supporting Laura at this point in her swimming career.
As the lockdown road map continues to move forward with plans and more restrictions being lifted from Monday 12th April meaning indoor pools can now also open, we got in touch with some of our athletes to see how lockdown has affected them, how they feel about the Olympics Trails and the road to Tokyo.
We sent the same set of questions to Toby Robinson (TR), Conor Ferguson (CF) and David Murphy (DM), heres what they had to say –
Monday 29 March saw the second stage of the first phase of lockdown restrictions eased across England – The restrictions relaxed on Monday allowed people to meet up outdoors in groups of six or two households, and allow a return to outdoor sports. This includes swimming in outdoor facilities, great news!
We have loved seeing all the people getting back to swimming and asked Lucy Thornton what she thought about getting back into water after all this time, here is what she had to say –Read More >
arena UK, are excited to announce a new 3 year sponsorship 
contract with Tamryn Van Selm .
arena UK, are excited to announce a new 3 year sponsorship contract with Cameron Williams.Read More >
arena UK are excited to announce a new 3 year sponsorship contract with Kayla van der Merwe . The 16 year old Winchester City Penguins swimmer has had a standout year in her first year racing internationally for Great Britain.Read More >
Alice Tai.
S8 category.Read More >
