Hart Swimming Club have started 2022 with a BANG! Hart SC took an incredible 57 swimmers to the Hampshire County Championships over the past three weekends. Resulting in 55 medals and over 100 Personal Best (PB’s) times being recorded
Hampshire County Championships welcomes swimmers from competitive swimming clubs from across Hampshire and the Channel Islands to compete during January and February and be crowned County Champion across a wide range of races. 50m, 100m, 200m across all 4 strokes and longer distance races in Individual Medley and 400m, 800m and 1500m in Freestyle. Hampshire County Champs is one of the most competitive in the Country due to the talent and strength of so many large swimming clubs in the county. Just to qualify is one of the hardest out of any county championships in the UK.
Hart SC took a record number of swimmers to this year’s competition. The records didn’t stop there with a record number of medals in the 14 & Under competition and the 15 & Over competition. Hart SC won 55 medals and swimmers recorded over 100 Personal Best times. The 14 & Under’s finished 3rd in the medal table only behind incredibly strong Jersey Tigers and Portsmouth Northsea squads.
Success didn’t stop there with several swimmers gaining qualification times to the British Championships in April, taking place in Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield.
The root cause of success for Hart Swimming Club goes back several years with the redevelopment of the club, its squad system, and efforts to keep the club going during COVID Lockdowns. The number of medals, finalists and PB’s from the Junior Squad shows how the club has progressed and strengthened from the bottom up. Developing young swimmers through the Junior squad system for future success in the later age groups.
Head Coach Darren Buchan said “I’m incredibly proud of the entire club on this achievement. We not only saw a record number of qualifiers and medals, but we also witnessed over 100 Personal Best times being achieved. A lot of hard work and dedication has gone in from volunteers and coaches over the past 5 years to make this happen. Id like to thank Assistant Head Coach Dan, Junior Head Coach Will, Coaches Alex, James and Balaz + all our Assistant Coaches on helping make this a reality, plus the volunteer committee for their tireless efforts.”
Chairman Spencer Farmer added “We are delighted for all the swimmers at this years County Champs. Each and everyone of the qualifiers swam brilliantly over the 3 weekends, medal or no medal. Just getting to the Champs is a remarkable achievement because Hampshire is so competitive. Id like to thank the Coaches and the Committee over the past few years. We set out on a plan several years back to rebuild from the ground up, going through the age groups and we are now seeing the fruits of that labour become reality as we see a breadth of success across all the age groups. Certainly, we have more to come!”
Success for Hart SC didn’t stop there. Hart SC Masters swimmers (18+) competed in the Swim England South East Regional Championships held at K2, Crawley recently. Swimmers achieved 13 medals over the weekend including a Gold Medal in the Men’s Medley Relay, Bronze in Freestyle Relay and Ladies team getting a Silver in the Freestyle Relay.
Darren went on to say “Our Masters squad continues to grow and develop. With ages ranging from 18 to 70 currently in the squad, its fantastic to see the hard work in training paying off in competition. Thank you to our Master’s Coach, James for working so hard with them all. For one of our swimmers to set a Competition Record during the event is also a fantastic achievement and shows the quality of swimmers in our Master’s team.”
To celebrate the success in the pool, Hart SC is announcing a new partnership with The Shack Cafe in Hook. The Shack Cafe is celebrating its centenary year this year. Situated in an old World War 1 building that used to house troops, it was moved to its present location in 1922, on the site of one of the South Coasts oldest Circuses as well. It’s not many Cafe’s that can claim to have a lion buried in the car park from many years ago. The Shack Cafe is donating 10p of every drink sold to Hart SC.
Shack Cafe owner Laura Hayward said “We are so proud of Hart SC and all their swimmers. Such a wonderful achievement during County Championships this year. We really want to help support the swimmers and the club and help them reach their full potential. There are a lot of costs involved with swimming and we hope through our partnership, we can do our bit to support Hart SC. We couldn’t think of any better way to celebrate our Centenary year than with Hart SC Swimmers.”
Spencer added “We wish to thank The Shack Cafe for their support and partnership with us. It really means the world to us and will help us continue to build on our recent success and ensure our swimmers develop further and reach their full potential. Partnership and sponsorship with local businesses is critical for the club. With increases in pool hire costs, it’s never easy for a club. Support like this will ensure we can continue to go above and beyond in our support to our swimmers. We are open to working with more local businesses and are eager to get going.”
If you are a local business and would like to work closer with Hart Swimming Club, please email chairman@hartsc.org.