Long Course Regionals – Weekend One, Luton

This past weekend saw the start of the 2026 East Region Long Course Championships for the 15 years and over swimmers. The three days of competition kicked off on Friday evening with a distance event and continued on Saturday and Sunday with two sessions each day and finals in the evenings. Next weekend the older swimmers will complete their full schedule of events on Saturday with the final distance event swum on the Sunday. After that it will be the turn of the 14 years and under swimmers to compete over the bank holiday weekend.

The 800m freestyle was the first event of the competition and the only event on Friday evening. The was swum as a mixed event with men and women swimming in heats with each other, seeded by their entry times. In the 15 year old men’s event, Perrin Ma narrowly missed out on a medal when he finished just 8 tenths behind the third place finisher. In the 17 and over group, Oliver Fenwick and K-ets Yah-Khai both had good swims to earn themselves ninth and seventh place finishes respectively. Daniel Belsey produced a swim that earned him a silver medal in the same age group.

In the morning heats on Saturday, events contested were the women’s 200m butterfly, men’s 200m backstroke, women’s 50m back, men’s 100m butterfly and women’s 400m free. There were some strong morning swims with a number of swimmers qualifying for finals later in the day. Oliver Baskerville, fresh from competing at British Champs, earned himself a middle lane for the 200m back final and Hatfield brought back three swimmer’s in the women’s 50m back. Camille Vannier, Erin Currie and Summer Boswell all qualified.

After a quick lunch break, swimmers were back for the second session with men’s 100m breast, 100m free and 400m IM. The women had the 200m breast, 50m free and 800m free relays. In the women’s 200m breaststroke, Caitlin Hartley, also coming off a week of competition at British Champs, qualified in the top spot for the final later on. The men’s 100m free saw some fast swims and big PB’s from our swimmers but placings were just outside what was needed for finals. Our lone competitor in the 400IM was Tommy Fenwick who managed a fifth place finish in his age group.

There was another break and warm up for the finals session before the action began. First up for the pink army were our 50m backstroke girls. It was great to see three pink hats out of the eight in the final. Erin finished in seventh, Summer in sixth and Camille captured the silver medal. Next was Caitlin in the 200m breast. She swam a very strong race to become regional champion and finish five seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Oliver was our last individual finalist of the night. He also put together a good race to stop the clock almost four seconds clear of the rest and win himself a regional championship.

After a short ten minute break, the session finished with some relays. Camille and Caitlin joined forces with Ever Ives and Katie Jeffrey in the 4x100m medley relay. The girls all performed brilliantly. Camille swam the backstroke leg just off her PB. Caitlin went in for the breaststroke (bringing her total up to an exhausting 500m for the day) moved through the field and was close to her PB. Ever was on the butterfly leg and gave a strong swim to keep us in the top three with Katie taking over for the freestyle. She battled hard with the Basildon swimmer and swam her fastest 100m free to ensure Hatfield secured a fantastic bronze medal.

Sunday morning and we were back at the Luton pool again. Daniel Williams was our only 200m butterfly swimmer and he placed eighth to make sure he could swim it again. In the 15 year old boys 50m backstroke, Tommy earned himself a finals spot as did Oliver in the 17 years and over. The timed finals of the men’s 400m free rounded off the session. Perrin placed fourth while Tommy was ninth. Our senior boys took 14th with K-ets, 9th with Oliver F and Daniel became regional champion in a very close finish.

Session two began with the women’s 100m breaststroke where we had two swimmers qualify to swim again. Caitlin and Ashley both produced well paced swims to advance. In stacked freestyle events, our swimmers again produced some very good PB’s but didn’t quite make it back for finals. The session did finish with another fantastic relay effort. This time it was the men’s 4x200m free relay. Oliver B led off with a new PB to give us a great start. Oliver F took over from him and swam right on his PB to hold second place. K-ets was in next and produced a PB to ensure we stayed in silver medal position when Daniel took to the water. With Norwich trying to catch up, he swam a strong anchor leg to make sure the boys took home that silver medal.

With just the finals left to swim, Daniel Williams again raced the 200m butterfly. In a very close finish seeing him place fourth, he also achieved a new PB. Tommy was our next finalist. He swam slightly faster than in the morning and finished sixth in the 50m back. Taking another tenth off his morning swim, Oliver touched in seventh place in his final. Ashley and Caitlin raced in lanes next to each other in the 100m breaststroke final. Both took time off their morning swims with Ashley finishing in silver medal position and Caitlin claiming her second regional championship of the competition.

The last race of the weekend was the women’s 4x100m free relay. Our team of Ever, Erin, Ashley and Katie were involved in a race that changed positions multiple times but in the end saw them just outside of the medals in fourth place.

Hatfield have had a strong start to this year’s Regional Championships with plenty of PB’s, finalists and medallists along with some Regional Champions. We will be looking to build on this early success next weekend when all the qualifiers head to Norwich for the final weekend of competition. Let’s go Hatfield! Good luck!