IAPS Swimming Finals, London Aquatics Centre (Girls AM, Boys PM)

Please see downloads for TEAM SHEET and PROGRAMME.

Result: 

Girls - 8th nationally

Boys - 10th nationally

U11 Girls - Rosie F (Captain), Penelope L, Coco W, Genevieve C, Harriet T, Faith S, Verity B, Annabelle B

U11 Boys - Joshua F (Captain), Henry E, Edward J, Sebastian F, George C, Beau B-W, Joshua M, Paul W

It was a particularly impressive achievement to see both our U11 Girls and U11 Boys achieve a place at the 2025 IAPS National Finals. This saw 16 swimmers from St Hugh’s travelling to London to compete in the iconic Olympic Pool. It is worth highlighting that this is just short of half the entire Y5/6 cohort. To qualify as a small school, the rules stipulate that you must have less than 60 pupils on roll so with our cohort of 36, we were likely the smallest school competing - quite an achievement and great to see St Hugh’s competing amongst hundreds of independent schools across the country. The rules also stipulate that teams must be single gender, with four Year 5 swimmers and four Year 6 swimmers. Fielding two teams under these rules is no easy task and I think this goes to show the value of weekly swimming lessons over the year in our own pool, in addition to squad training.

Qualifying for this event saw our swimmers racing for a time at Repton earlier in the year in an attempt to finish top 10 nationally in order to secure a place at the finals. Once the results were published, the hard work continued and I was so impressed with the commitment and dedication from the whole squad. From 7.30am early morning training to sessions scheduled over the half term holidays, the squad took this preparation seriously. We focussed on small margins and those important elements of racing that make the difference. Every swimmer worked tirelessly and gave 100% to ensure they were as prepared as they could be. 

The finals took place on Saturday 7th June at the London Aquatic Centre. For the majority of our swimmers, this was their first experience competing under Aquatics GB laws. From stepping up onto the racing block (which has been used by swim legends such as Adam Peaty) to having their strokes and changeovers scrutinised by race officials, it can be quite a daunting experience! I was delighted with both team performances on the day which saw us avoid DQ’s and swim substantially faster than our qualifying time. The girls achieved a time of 2:29.06 and the boys 2:29.18 which was the closest they had ever gotten to one another! This was an 11 seconds improvement from the girls and 7seconds from the boys. They should be delighted with this performance, which sees St Hugh’s finish 8th (girls) and 10th (boys) nationally.

Well done to every team member for representing St Hugh’s at this prestigious event and thank you to the large group of supporting parents who travelled to London. I hope the children look back on this experience for years to come.