The gala will take place at:
Corby International Pool,
Parkland Gateway,
Corby,
Northampton,
NN17 1QB
All swimmers will need to arrive at John Charles no later than 8:15 am ready for the coach to depart at 8:30 am sharp. We will not be allowed in to the building until 12:15 so we strongly advise that children bring a warm/waterproof jacket with them as we could be eating on arrival outside. Warm-up starts at 12:30 pm with the parade of teams at approximately 13:30 pm. We hope to be back at JCC for 7:30 pm. All swimmers will be required to travel to and from the meet on the team coach.
If your child has a team track suit they should travel to and from the event in it. Each swimmer must wear their Junior League Final 2017 whilst the event is taking place and for all team photographs. Junior League Final 2017 T Shirts will be handed out on Sunday. Please also ensure your child has another Leeds t-shirt to wear on the way home.
Obviously this will be a long day, so the children will need enough food and drinks to last the day. They should not be given all of their food for the day straight away, as they tend to eat too much on the journey down to Corby. Swimmers will not be allowed to leave our teams marshalling area to collect drinks from parents etc during the meet. Therefore please ensure they are adequately supplied with nutritious snacks and enough hydration on arrival at the pool.
Swimmers please remember everything you have practiced. This will be a tough competition, every millisecond counts in an event like this so remember shallow dives, kick hard, get up and race hard and don't slow down into finishes. BE CAREFUL ON THE TAKEOVERS!!!! It is better to go late than early. We need to grab every point we can, getting disqualified can cause the team to loose 8 points, this we don't want.
Parents please wear team colours!!! Remember the louder you shout the faster the swimmers will go, nobody should have a voice left by the end of the competition. We look forward to seeing you all dressed up in your hats, wigs, face paints etc. Make as much noise as you can! Drums, horns, flags, floating sharks, chants we want to see you go all out! We do not just want the best swimmers on the day, we want the best supporters on the balcony too. We are all part of the same team, please make sure you get behind every swimmer.
Kay Jackson (Megan Sharp's mum) will be selling shark tattoos for the Junior League Grand Final. You can purchase 2 tattoos for £1 from her during the week or on the Junior League bus.
I am also delighted to let you know that we will have a special guest attending (Adam Peaty) to present the medals to the swimmers at the end of the event. Due to this, I hope you will appreciate that the day will be slightly extended for the presentations. There will be NO individual photos with Adam at this time due to the time constraints. If there is time after all the teams have had their Age Group photos and Adam is still available, by all means do ask him. Please do not be offended if you have had your photo and you are asked to move on to allow others to have their photos taken; as said we have very limited time to be able to complete this for all of the teams.
TIMELINE & PROGRAMME FOR THE DAY
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12:15 – Balcony & changing room access – due to lack of locker space please keep your kit with your team poolside (in a tidy manner)
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12.30 Safety announcement and warm-up to 13.00
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13:00 – End of warm-up ONLY 4 mins to get ready for the parade and line up in the changing village – IT WILL BE BUSY – please listen to the stewards, they are trying to help the parade go smoothly
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13:00 – OFFICIALS to line up along flume barrie
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13.05 - Team parade from changing village (– teams to be to lead by a ref/starter)
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13.25 - Officials parade from 'flume line-up', introduction of Referees and Starter
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13.27 - National Anthem – please stand still for this and if you feel appropriate, cheer at the end
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13.28 - Safety announcement revisited - first and second race competitors to go to start ready behind blocks
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13.30 - Racing begins
Hope you all have a fun and exciting day.
Good Luck Everyone!
The Regional Team