County swimming championships weekend cancelled because of fault with Corby pool

More than 500 swimmers from the seven competitive affiliated clubs throughout Northamptonshire should have been taking part in the 2017 Northamptonshire Amateur Swimming Association (NASA) County Championships.

But due to a major technical fault with the operating of the booms that convert the pool from 25m to 50m, this meant that the first weekend of competition had to be cancelled.

NASA president Lesley Sharp said: “The competing clubs were notified at 9.45pm the night before to let their competitors know via social media, emails, texts and personal phone calls.

“So many people will not realise the impact that this will have or has had.

“Throughout the country, the county championships have to be held within weeks two to nine of the competition calendar year.

“The conditions of the Level 1 Licensing criteria meant that the event can only be swum in the long course 50m format.

“This is a major disappointment for the swimmers and coaching staff for whom this event may be the equivalent of ‘their Olympics’ as not all swimmers will compete at elite level, but also for all the hard work that goes on quietly and efficiently behind the scenes by the volunteer event organisers co-ordinating the technical officials and ancillary helpers, catering, cost of programme printing.

“This decision was not taken lightly by the organisers who now have the task of trying to reschedule those ‘lost’ six sessions of competition.”

A Corby Council spokesman said: “It was with great disappointment that this weekend’s gala event had to be cancelled due to a technical fault in the swimming pool.

“Corby Council is very proud to hold these events in our facility and we apologise for the inconvenience caused.

“We hope to be able to rearrange this particular gala at a later date.”