H2Open, the World’s first dedicated open water swimming magazine, has joined forces with seven race organisers to create Britain’s first National Open Water Swimming Ranking Series for 2012.

The concept is simple. Swimmers will have to complete three of the seven races to participate and will be awarded points based on their finishing position. The top swimmers in each age group will be crowned national champions at the end of the year. Race distances range from 1 mile to 5 km and take place in the sea, rivers and lakes around Britain.

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Safety is of paramount importance to the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) and British Swimming in the conduct of any Open Water Swimming event / competition.

Click to download Guidance, Safe Operating Procedures & Risk Assessment.

14 August 2011 - Southbourne

In the 3.8km Long Swim, Mark Harris (3rd Veteran, 01:04:09) and Mark Richardson (01:08:34) finished 7th and 12th respectively. Emily Gall (Abbott) came 2nd in the Female Senior category in 01:15:10. In their respective Super Vet categories, Tony Harris (01:16:49) came 3rd, Jonathan Easterbrooke (01:19:37) 4th, Simon Gregan (01:20:10) 5th and Margaret Rouse (01:56:46) 3rd

Winner of the Seahorse Swim 2011, Mark Forrester (male Veteran) clocked up another win in the 1 mile swim (00:22:10). Club members Paul Morrison (00:27:08, Male Senior) and Ali Budynkiewicz (00:46:32, Female Super Vet) came first in their respective categories.

Click to view results.

British Gas ITC Swansea swimmer Tom Allen, who competed at the World Championships in Shanghai last month, won silver with a strong swim in the 5km race in Navia.

As well as the European Juniors Navia is hosting RFEN and regional Championships.

Germany won the 3km event in 32.08.8, Italy were second (32.34.9) and hosts Spain third (32.35.0) - the team’s time equates to that of the third swimmer to finish.

The GB team of Thomas Allen (32:54.2), Thomas Sunter (32:55.3) and Danielle Hall-Jackson (32:56.2) came 6th.

The British Gas GBR Open Water Swimming Team that will take on the best swimmers from the continent at the Open Water European Junior Championships in Spain, has been announced.

The six-strong Team which features, World Championship finalist Thomas Allen and former European Junior Champion Eleanor Faulkner, will take part in the two day event from the 12th August as they compete in the 5km races.

Congratulations to East Dorset Open Water Swimming Club members who successfully swam around Brownsea Island nr Poole on a beautiful summer’s day. A special well done to club members Steve McCarthy, who is blind, and his guide Ann McGrath who is preparing for her second Channel relay swim in August.

We would like to thank RLSS Poole Lifeguard who organised the annual event with the support of many volunteers from various lifeguarding groups, the John Lewis Partnership, the National Trust and our Club.

Emily Gall (1.32.29) and Stuart Purcell (1.32.46) came second in their respective wetsuit and non-wetsuit categories.

More than 50 eager young swimmers gathered on the bank of Rother Valley Country Park to take part in the Championships.

The overcast conditions did not deter swimmers tackling two distances from 1750 metres - 15/16 Yrs Age Group through to a 2000m - 17/18 Yrs Age Group.

Race Timing Systems deployed their new deep water finish line solution for timing open water swimming at the Human Race Windsor Open Water Swim. The innovative solution offers a new approach to the problem of capturing athlete information in a deep water finish situation:

Athletes wear a paper thin disposable chip on their heads, stuck to the swim cap.
To ‘cross’ the line the athlete simply swims through the finish line gantry.
No need to touch anything
No need to carry an awkward wrist mounted chip.
No need to recover chips at the finish line
Water check in gateway

Human Race have organised a Open water swim on the seafront by Sandbanks in Poole on 11 September 2011.

Human Race are really keen to get as many local people involved in open water swimming as possible, either through taking part in the event or coming down to take in the experience from the seaside! The stunning sandy beaches will be home to swimmers and 10,000 wind sport fans as this event features as part of Wind Fest 2011.

Various distances available to try including; 750m, 1500m, 3km.