Club History - Recent History and Resurgence
In late 2014 the Club underwent a
major squad restructure reflecting ASA reforms and elements from the Long Term
Athletic Development (LTAD) framework adopted by the other top swimming clubs
and introduced a new Beacon Annual Swimming Plan. This was done in combination
with the securing of additional pool time at Mayfield School to allow for an
increase in training time and members. The Beacon Swimming Plan looks to the
long term development of each swimmer and is designed to allow each swimmer to
reach their maximum potential. The Beacon Swimming Plan will also meet the
commitments to implement a swimmer pathway in the Club’s Swim21 Accreditation.
The introduction of the new Beacon Swimming Plan heralded a number of exceptional results for both individual swimmers and the Club. In April 2015 Hannah Ashby, aged 13, qualified to swim in the British Swimming Championships and in the same year Daniel Brooks won a silver medal in the 200m Breaststroke in the ASA Summer Nationals. The Club’s representation at the 2015 British Swimming Championships was repeated in 2016 with Daniel also qualifying for the British Swimming Championships which also acted as Olympic trials for Rio. The first time a Beacon swimmer had competed at Olympic trials since Anna Dadswell back in 1980.
The success in 2015 continued in the open water with Andrew Horsfall-Turner, 21, winning the Regional 5km Open Water Championships to secure his entry into the ASA National Open Water Championships, where up against tough competition he finished a fantastic 5thnationally.
In the team swimming competitions 2015 also proved to be one of the best ever with Beacon winning Division Two of the Sussex League and being promoted for the first time to Division One. This was only the second year the Club had entered the Sussex League since 1988. In 2015 the Club entered, for the first time in its first 40 years, the National Arena Swimming League and almost unbelievably managed to come runners up in its Division to secure promotion in 2016 to Division One.