In the interest of swimmer welfare and with no further clarity on the likelihood of a significant ease on lockdown restrictions, Swimming Waikato have chosen to postpone the Waikato Swimming Championships until February 2022. All components of this meet, including the Commonwealth Games & World Championship FINA qualification status will remain in place moving forward into 2022, therefore the re-scheduled date will continue to act as a qualification opportunity for those international events. 

This decision has not been an easy one to make, however we must take into consideration the length of time the Waikato and Auckland have now been in lockdown and match this with what is actually required over and above what we might ideally want. We are as eager as any region to see our swimmers going full-throttle at our Championship & QF Meet, however at this stage we have another battle to collectively overcome first.

Moving forward and restriction levels permitting, it is our plan to host a gateway competition on the same weekend (4-5 Dec), more information on this will be provided in the next week. This meet will provide an ease back into racing, taking into consideration a likely variation of conditioning and race-ready levels and of course any government mandated requirements. This opportunity will have 12/u and 13+ components.

Thank you to Swimming New Zealand for their input over the last few weeks, this has been extremely useful in supporting our decision.

Please note that this decision will also encompass the Waikato Christmas Development Meet which will also be postponed.