Kent County Championships 2026
Kent Championships Latest Info:
- 800m - 17 January 2026 at K2 - Here are the accepted entries for the 800m free and the reserve list (sorted as nearest to their age QT) . Please check and let me know any queries.
- Accepted Entries 800m Free.xlsx
- Reserve Lists 800m Free.xlsx
- Rejected 800m Free Clubs.xlsx
- 1500m - 7th February 2026 at K2
- Closing date for all other events – 11th January
Dates to note:
- 50m-400m: 24/25 January and 31 January/1 February 2026 at the LAC
- Qualifying Window for 800m Freestyle – 1 January 2025 to 3 January 2026
- Qualifying Window for all other events – 1 January 2025 to 13 January 2026
Entry Fees
There will be no increase in entry fees for the 2026 Champs, staying at £15 for the 800m and 1500m Freestyle, and £11 for all other events.
Sessions
Please see the linked schedule across the six days of competition. The programme itself follows last year’s. The most important change is that the LAC days are 30 minutes longer – this is partly due to the training pool being unavailable for warm down in the morning. To alleviate this, there will be a 15 minute warm down period after the final heats, before the finals begin. The diving pit will be open for warm down in the afternoons. Additionally, running for longer each day gives us the flexibility to run additional heats during sessions, and expand the quota accordingly.
Hosting
As in previous years, the County will be asking clubs to host individual days, including the long-distance events at Crawley. This involves providing volunteers across a standard set of roles for each day. If you want to volunteer your Club to host, please contact Jan Annan. The most crucial part of this is ensuring that each session has a dedicated Welfare Officer and a male and female changing room patrol for each session. These roles each require an Enhanced DBS, so please bear this in mind.
Qualifying Times
In addition to the Qualifying Times, there is an import file for clubs who use Swim Club Manager. Feedback on this file should be sent to Mark Leman as it is experimental.
You will notice that consideration times are (in many cases) slower than last year, as we were undersubscribed for some events over the past few years. As we expect more swimmers to meet these times, we anticipate that we will have to reject some entries so that we do not exceed the allotted time on each day. Nevertheless all swimmers who have consideration times should enter, as some swimmers with fast enough times will not enter due to injury or having moved out of Kent.
It's important to note that there are minimum entry numbers in each age group, so one age group having more potential qualifiers will not affect the minimum number of swimmers in other age groups.
Accreditation
All clubs should be aware that coaches and team managers will need to purchase new passes for the Championships – all passes for 2025 have now expired. Please contact John King to apply for new passes – these are at the same price as last year, at £10 per pass.
Spectator Tickets
Spectator tickets will be available in the New Year and will be the same price as last year. - To purchase your tickets follow this link - https://www.kentswimming.org/sspage-swimming-championships62-spectator_tickets.html
Streaming
The LAC sessions will be streamed as in previous years. Details and links will be announced in the new year.
Photography
The County has also secured the services of Jason Shepherd Photography, to take photos in the same manner as previous Kent County meets. Details and booking info will be available at a later date.
Kent Official Merchandise
Merchandise for the Kent County Championships 2026 is now available for pre-order, with hoodies, t-shirts and swim caps available in range of colours and designs, and a bundle deal for all three items for £65 in any combination of designs.
- Orders made before 11th January 2026 will be available for collection on the 24th/25th January at LAC.
- Orders made between 13th and 18th January 2026 will be available for collection on the 31st January/1st February at LAC.
- Orders made from 20th January to 15th February 2026 will be posted to your address towards the end of February.
- Orders can be made on the SwimPath website.
- 23 Dec 2025Holiday Timetable in effect until 2nd Jan
Our holiday timetable is now in place with normal sessions resuming on the 2nd Jan! Wishing everyone a Happy Christmas and New Year. - 22 Dec 2025Christmas Social
A big thanks to the coaches and committee and of course all the swimmers for a fun afternoon at Laser Quest in Greenwich. Lots of happy children and great scores. - 23 Mar 2025Record Lost Property haul at Saxon Crown Spring Challenge!
There was a record amount of lost property left behind at the Saxon Crown Spring Challenge this year. A record number of clubs managed to contribute. As well as that a record number of swimmers competed from clubs all over London and surrounding Boroughs. It was a successful and smooth running event with many of our own swimmers achieving qualifying times in time to enter the London SE Regionals at the end of April. - 22 Mar 2025Saxon Crown's Freya and Ailish enjoying round 1 of the KJL
Saxon Crown came a formidable second in round 1 of the Kent Junior League. Some of the top clubs in Kent were competing, our swimmers achieved some impressive times and lots of fun was had by all. - 15 Mar 2025Saxon Crown win Round 1 at the White Horse League
Saxon Crown lead the way at the White Horse League after round 1. We managed to squeeze our way past Bexley by 3 points. There were some great swims, pbs, regional times and amazing camaraderie. Keep it up team! - 14 Mar 2025Lewisham Primary Schools Gala 2025
On Friday 14th March over 270 swimmers from twenty-seven of the Borough’s primary schools arrive at Glass Mill Leisure Centre to compete in this year’s Lewisham Primary School Gala. The event was organised by Saxon Crown Swimming Club, supported by Lewisham Council and GLL, who provided pool space and staff free of charge. Photo of Jessica MIllot from Saxon Crown and Kilmorie Year 5. See below for the full report. - 01 Mar 2025Tunde, Kerem and Freya at last day of the Kents
Tunde 6th, Kerem 8th and Freya 3rd in the 1500m finals of the last day of the Kents. Well done. - 01 Mar 2025Successful Kents 2025, Summary from Sergio, Head Coach
For a few years now Team Saxon made a presence at Kent County competitions. Going from strength to strength even in 2025 it was great to see many more swimmers fast enough to participate in this tough event. And we did not disappoint.40 of our fastest athletes amongst which some new qualifiers competed in 214 events performing incredibly well swimming many pbs and regional times and making 88 top 10 finals in all stroke and distances, achieving 6 bronze, 10 silver and 3 gold medals making us top 8/9(points not updated after 1500 event yet) club in Kent compared to 14th last year. Moreover swimmers showed great determination, team sprint and commeraderie cheering at every event as well as competing at their best.
It is a joy to see so many happy and succesful swimmers wearing the colors of Saxon Crown and making coaches proud!
Go Saxons! - 02 Feb 2025Deji giving it large at the Kents
With just one more event to go Saxon Crown are on course to achieving their best medals tally and points scored in the Kents for some time.
Look out for the final scores after the 1500m the final event on 1 March. Well done swimmers!! - 25 Jan 2025Gold and Silver medals for Saxon Crown Swimmers at the Kents
What a fantastic second weekend at the Kents for Saxon Crown swimmers winning medals and impressive PBs aplenty. Ruth Allen won Gold and Freya Sheard won Silver in the 13yr 200m butterfly. Well done Swimmers, bring on week 3!!!!
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