Arena League – Round 1
It’s that time of year again! National Arena Swimming League has started and the competition is as fierce and exciting as ever! For those of you new to the format, Arena League is the premier swimming league competition in England and Wales and has been held for over 50 years. Nearly 400 teams with over 16000 swimmer racing in individual events as well as relays take part. There are six leagues which all compete in three rounds to crown that league’s champion and to identify who qualifies for the National B Final and the National Cup Final.
There have been a few years when Hatfield have qualified for the final, the first time being back in 1997. Since then, the Pink Army had a magnificent run of years, making it to the Cup Final from 2004-2015, 2018-2020 and 2022. In 2006, Hatfield claimed the National title! We also competed in the B Final 2016. Qualification is very difficult now against some very large teams with a couple of the well known swimming schools more often than not topping the leader board.
Hatfield compete in the London League where there are currently three divisions. Division 2 currently has 10 teams, Division 1 has 14 and the Premier Division, in which we compete, has 16 teams. On Saturday night, the Pink Army travelled to Luton to take on the first round. We were against Hillingdon A, Teddington, Enfield, Basildon & Phoenix, Hackney Anaconda, CoStA and Bishop Stortford.
Our team battled hard throughout the evening and there were some extremely close races. The swimmers and parents did a great job cheering and supporting and our pink shirts were easy to spot in the gallery. Well done to some of our younger swimmers who swam up an age group to make sure we could field a full team – that is always a tough ask.
Winning a race in Arena League is always difficult as the competition is such a high level. On the night, the Pink Army did snatch a few first place finishes though. The first of these was an exciting men’s medley relay where our team of Oliver Baskerville, Lucas Hartley, Lucas Dyson-Diaz and Liam Rumball out touched the rest in a close battle for victory. Our second win of the day came just two races later when one of our younger swimmers, Julien Vannier, beat the competition to touch first in the 50m backstroke. Not too long after, it was the turn of another of our 10/11 year old boys, Oliver Barrows, to be victorious in the 50m breaststroke. Caitlin Hartley took on the 100m breaststroke with a strong race and also came home first. Hatfield then made an impressive clean sweep of the 16+ 100m free with both Ever Ives and Lucas Hartley taking back to back wins. Our final victory of the night came in the female 16+ free relay when Ever Ives, Katie Jeffrey, Ashley Ransome and Erin Currie were triumphant in reaching the wall first.
When the waves had calmed down and the points were added up, Hatfield finished 4th on the night. We were agonisingly 1 point behind Hillingdon in 3rd. Bishop Stortford were 2nd and Basildon Phoenix were 1st. The next round will be held on the weekend of November 9th where the Pink Army will again come out fighting for every point we can get! Let’s go Hatfield!
