Arena League 2026
Saturday saw the exciting return of the National Arena Swimming League for the 2026 season. The country is divided into six individual leagues, all of which compete in three rounds to crown the individual league’s champion, and to identify qualifiers for entry into the National Plate Final and the National Cup Final.
This year the galas are to be held on the second weekends in October and November and the first weekend in December to fit in with the national programmes in England and Wales. Currently nearly 300 teams and over 12,000 swimmers take part in team relays and individual events in galas of 51 events, over three rounds. It’s a large, exciting and competitive competition.
At the end of the three rounds of competition in the six individual leagues, the winners and runners-up are then invited to the Finals weekend at the beginning of March in the following year. The six top teams from each league are entered into a virtual gala so an additional eight teams can also compete in the Finals which will be held at Sandwell Aquatics Centre in Birmingham.
All of the competitions are licensed, allowing athletes the opportunity of gaining times on rankings. These can be used for qualification to county, regional and national level meets.
On Saturday, Hatfield faced stiff competition in the first round. We were up against local rivals CoStA and Watford as well as teams from slightly further afield such as Dunstable, Colchester and Teddington and London powerhouses, Chelsea Westminster and Basildon and Pheonix.
The competition was fierce and the Pink Army battled hard. Every swimmer gave their all for the team and a couple even swam up an age to fill a few gaps we had on the night. Well done to them on an incredible effort!
Our boys 9/11 year old age group had a strong showing especially in their relays were they combined to place second in both the free and medley teams. Our seniors were also consistently strong in their relays to earn us valuable points.
Individual top 3 placings were hard to come by but the Pink Army did manage a to get among the top positions in a few events. Charlie placed third in the 13/U 100m butterfly with a strong race. There were three swimmers who touched in 2nd. They were Daniel in the 16+ 100m butterfly, Leonardas just two races later in the 10/11yrs 50m butterfly and Skyla in the 10/11yrs 50m breaststroke. Well done to all of them. We also had one winner on the night and that was birthday girl, Caitlin, in the 16+ 100m breaststroke! Great racing!
Once the deafening noise of the squadron relay had died down, the final placing were announced. Dunstable were 8th, Colchester 7th, Hatfield 6th, with just 9 points more were Teddington in 5th and with only 1 point more than them, CoSta were 4th. The top three were Watford, Basildon and Phoenix and 95 points ahead of them, the winners were Chelsea Westminster.
Well done to everyone involved from the swimmers to the TM’s and coaches, to the officials and also our proud in pink supporters!(We did look the best in the stands!) Special thanks to our away university swimmers, Caitlin and Lucas, who travelled home for the weekend to compete for us. Also to James for coming out of retirement! On to round 2 in November! Let’s go Hatfield!
