The Debrief called for British Swimming to make clear their dates for major competitions well in advance of meets to give competitors the best chance to prepare and in response, the organisation has now confirmed that the 2013 British Gas Swimming Championships will be held in Ponds Forge in Sheffield (pictured top) from June 26 until 30.

This event will be of huge importance for Britain's top swimmers as it will also form the trials for the 2013 World Long Course Championships in Barcelona in July.

Last year, the event took place at the Aquatics Centre on the Olympic Park in Stratford and served as the trials for London 2012.


Meanwhile, British Swimming have also announced the date for a second key domestic competition in 2013 after the Debrief called for swimmers to race more often.

The competition will be the British Gas Open Meet and it will be staged from March 7 until 10 next year at the John Charles Centre for Sport in Leeds.

The British Gas Open Meet will become a regular fixture on the British Swimming calendar in the run up to Rio 2016 and it will also be open to foreign competitors.

The long term plan is for the competition to develop it into a major recognised meet in the international calendar while it will become the domestic benchmark meet on the development programme.

In 2013, it will serve as trials for the European Junior Championships and the European Youth Olympic Festival.

It will also act as the first stage of selections for the World Championships open water places.

British Swimming is currently in discussions with Scottish Swimming, whose national championships are normally held at the end of June, to join up with the event.

"Further details including the event schedules, timings and tickets will be made available in due course," said a statement from British Swimming.

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