Merrylands will be represented by its biggest team ever at the 2021 Metro South West Area Open & Age Short Course Championships. The Championships will be held at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th June, 2021.
Our club will be sending a team of 22 swimmers to the 2-day meet and will compete in 96 individual events.
Good luck to the following members:
Lucas Alvarez
Joseph Assi
Laura-Belle Casey
Joab Hada
Ren Hum
Elie Menhem
Vanessa Ozols
Alison Johnston
Jay Shrestha
Lisa Shrestha
Nevah Shrestha
Niushka Shrestha
Ruby Shrestha
Shreya Shrestha
Summer Shrestha
Unish Shrestha
Chloe Ton
Ethan Ton
Daniel Vicic
Matthew Vicic
Leo Zhu
Lillian Zhu
The full Timeline will be available on the Metro South West website. Congratulations to our swimmers for qualifying, especially our first-time qualifiers, and good luck to our entire team at the meet.
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Our Senior swimmers kicked off their season with some great results at the Metro South West Senior Long Course Championships. These Championships were held at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre on the 7th and 8th of November.
Laura-Belle had some fabulous results, achieving personal best times in 3 out of 4 of her swims. Laura-Belle took off over 3 seconds in the Open 50m Butterfly, achieving her first sub 40 time!
Michael had just completed his HSC physics exam the day before the meet. The force (mass x acceleration) was with him and Michael achieved a personal best in the Open 50m Freestyle.
Elie showed gutsy efforts in his swims after returning from a break and several injuries. Elie saved his best performance for the last of the day with a personal best in the Open 50m Freestyle.
It was Vanessa’s first-time swimming at these Championships and she had some wonderful results, with personal best times in the 50m Butterfly and 50m Breaststroke. Vanessa was a finalist in her 4 events.
Summer added to her Metropolitan events with a personal best in the 100m Freestyle. Summer also achieved personal best times in the 100m Backstroke and 100m Breaststroke, and was a finalist in this event.
Brendan contested a massive 9 events during the meet. Brendan was a finalist in four events, including a top 10 finish in the Men’s Open 200m Individual Medley.
Alison’s highlight was the Women’s Open 50m Freestyle, coming 9th out of 130 swimmers. Alison also picked up 2 silver medals, 1 bronze and 4 other top 10 finishes.
Congratulations to all our swimmers and thank you to Peter and Alison for their coaching.
Merrylands will send a team of 7 swimmers to the Metro South West Senior Championships this weekend.
The Championships are being held at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre on Saturday 7th & Sunday 8th November.
Our team is competing in 39 individual events over the weekend, and consists of:
Laura-Belle Casey
Michael Evans
Brendan Kirkpatrick
Elie Menhem
Vanessa Ozols
Alison Sakurovs
Summer Shrestha
Following the session on Saturday, Metro South West are holding a Junior Qualifying Meet. We will have 6 swimmers competing at this meet in 8 events.
Our team consists of:
Joseph Assi
Joab Hada
Niushka Shrestha
Unish Shrestha
Daniel Vicic
Matthew Vicic
Good luck to all our swimmers at both meets.
Merrylands' team of 11 swimmers had a fantastic meet at the Metro South West Junior Championships this weekend. Our swimmers achieved a massive 41 personal best times out of 46 individual swims. We also had 21 Finalists, 2 Bronze and 1 Gold medal, and 2 awesome relay swims!
Our swimmers had so many amazing we could not list them all but a few highlights are below:
Joseph Assi took a huge 7 seconds off his 100m Breaststroke time and earned himself a bronze medal in the process. He tipped out Unish Shrestha by 0.01 but Unish won himself a bronze medal in the 100m Butterfly where he took 12 seconds off his time.
Daniel Vicic finished his meet strongly with a 13 second PB and 4th place in his 4th event of the meet, the 100m Backstroke.
Joab Hada took a big 4 seconds off his 50m Breaststroke time and came in under a minute for the first time ever!
Joseph, Unish Daniel and Joab joined forces and competed in the 10&Under Freestyle Relay. The boys did Merrylands proud with a massive effort, taking 8 seconds off their entry time and coming 4th overall.
Lisa Shrestha had a gutsy 100m Butterfly and was determined to finish on 2 stroke breathing. Lisa took a second off her time and came 7th in the process.
Niushka Shrestha fought back in the 100m Butterfly after a tough first 50 for 8th place, with almost 6 seconds off her time.
Nevah Shrestha swam her 100m Backstroke with lovely technique, taking 6 seconds off her time and earning a 6th place finish.
Shreya Shrestha raced strongly to take almost 6 seconds off her 100m Freestyle time in her first Championship event.
Summer Shrestha powered to a 13 second PB in her 100m Breaststroke, with her first 50m split almost her 50m PB time!
Niushka, Nevah, Shreya and Summer combined in the 11-13 Years Freestyle Relay. They took a massive 5 seconds off their entry times. Niushka achieved an official PB as the lead off leg and all the other girls were faster than their official times.
Matthew Vicic had a very impressive 200m Butterfly race, with a smooth and controlled swim. Matt took 16 seconds off his mark and won a gold medal for his effort. This swim also qualified Matt for the Metropolitan and State Championships.
Elie Menhem had a superb 200m Breaststroke swim, taking another 11 seconds off his time after taking 16 seconds off his time 2 weeks earlier. Elie also earned a finalist ribbon which is a great achievement having never qualified for a championship event before this year.
Thank you to our parents, siblings and friends who supported our swimmers. The cheers were heard throughout the venue all the way to the Recorder’s Room! Thank you to our coaches for helping prepare our swimmers for the meet.
Personal Bests: 41
Finalists: 21
Medal Tally
Gold: 1
Bronze: 2
See Also
Merrylands will be represented by a team of 11 swimmers at the Metro South West Junior Area Championships which start at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre today.
Our team is competing in 45 individual events and 2 relays, and consists of:
- Joseph Assi
- Joab Hada
- Elie Menhem
- Lisa Shrestha
- Nevah Shrestha
- Niushka Shrestha
- Shreya Shrestha
- Summer Shrestha
- Unish Shrestha
- Daniel Vicic
- Matthew Vicic
Best of luck to the whole team.
Merrylands swimmers had hot results at the Speedo Sprint Heats held yesterday at Blacktown Aquatic Centre.
Our team achieved 48 new personal best times, 5 finalists and 2 new Metropolitan qualifying times.
The meet commenced with a jam packed warm up but our kids held their own in busy conditions.
Elie Menhem kicked off the meet with a PB in the 50m Butterfly, swimming under 40 seconds for the first time. He also shaved 0.1 off his breaststroke time coming off the back of an awesome 200m Breaststroke that morning.
Ferenique Bris was competing for the first time at this event and she swam a massive 6 second PB in the 50m Butterfly, which may yet become her favourite event! Ferenique also achieved a 4 second PB in the Breaststroke.
Matthew Vicic was our first swimmer of the meet to make it through to the finals, with a PB and a 4th place in the 50m Butterfly. Matt also achieved a 3rd place in the 50m Freestyle adding to his events in the finals. Matt gained another Metropolitan time with a PB in the 50m Backstroke and caused a sibling upset.
Shreya Shrestha hit some massive milestones and came in under 50 seconds for the first time in Butterfly and 60 seconds in Breaststroke!
Summer Shrestha dropped 2 seconds in her Butterfly and achieved a new Metropolitan time in the process. Summer took half a second off her Freestyle time, finishing 7th overall and also PB’d in the Breaststroke, dipping into the 43s.
Thayne Bris and Ren Jie Hum were also competing at the meet for the first time and they should have gone home happy with their performances. Thayne dropped 2 seconds in his Breaststroke and another second in his Backstroke, while Ren achieved a 6 second PB in his Butterfly, 2 seconds in his Freestyle and 3 seconds in his Breaststroke.
Ameena Abdelraheem, having just swam new PBs at her school carnival during the week, took another 3 seconds off in the Butterfly!
Nevah Shrestha achieved 4 from 4 PBs which is an amazing effort considering the conditions on the day. She concentrated on her breathing in the Butterfly and earnt a 5 second PB in the process. Nevah also took at least 1 second off her other 3 swims.
Niushka Shrestha broke the 40 second mark in the Butterfly for the first time, and also lowered her Freestyle time whilst thinking about her breathing patterns, making her coach very proud.
Avani Pradhan worked hard for a huge 5 second PB in the Butterfly, and swam her second fastest time in the Breaststroke after achieving a new PB in the club championships earlier in the day.
After swimming new PBs (including 2 club records) in 3 events over the past 8 days, Lisa Shrestha swam another new PB in her Freestyle, taking almost 1 second off the PB she had just swum at club earlier in the day.
Daniel Vicic was our second finalist of the meet with an amazing swim in the Freestyle. Daniel swam under 40 for the first time and skipped the 39’s straight into a 38! Daniel also PB’d in the 50 Backstroke coming 6th overall.
Joseph Assi took a huge 6 seconds off his Butterfly time. Joseph then swam his second PB for the day in the Breaststroke, finishing 3rd and earning himself a ribbon and a spot in the finals.
Unish Shrestha also broke 40 seconds for Freestyle, narrowly missing out on the finals with a 5th place. He went one better in the Breaststroke, finishing 4th with a new PB, and making it through to the finals for the second year in a row.
Chloe Ton’s first time at Speedo Sprints resulted in some top swims. Chloe achieved a 2 second PB in Freestyle, 5 second PB in Breaststroke and 4 second PB in Backstroke!
It was also Lucas Alvarez, Pare Nader and Ruby Shrestha’s first at the Speedo Sprints.
Lucas backed up from a PB in the Freestyle in the morning to another in the afternoon. Lucas also PB’d in the Breaststroke and had his first time under a minute in Backstroke.
Pare had a gallant effort in the Butterfly with a cap malfunction and had a very gutsy performance just outside her best time. She achieved an official PB in the Freestyle finishing 6th, after having an unofficial PB at school the day before. Pare also achieved a top 10 finish in the Breaststroke and Backstroke.
Ruby PB’d in the Freestyle and took over 2 seconds off her time. Whilst Ruby only competed in one event, it felt like she was in all of them – she cheered on all our swimmers for the whole meet and was a wonderful representative of Merrylands Club.
The parents, siblings and supporters did an amazing job in hot conditions. They supplied the cool drinks and fan support in both meanings of the word! The enthusiasm continued all afternoon as they cheered on our swimmers at the finish. Thank you to our coaches for prepping our swimmers and probably being just as wet as they were!
Congratulations to all our swimmers and support crew.
Our 4 finalists: Daniel, Matt, Joseph and Unish.
See Also
Good luck to our team of 13 swimmers who are representing Merrylands at the Metro South West Junior Championships on Saturday, 16th February.
The championships are being held at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre.
Our team consists of:
Laura Belle Casey
Abraham El-Chami
Bilal El-Chami
Joab Hada
Helen Macpherson
Elie Menhem
Lisa Shrestha
Nevah Shrestha
Niushka Shrestha
Summer Shrestha
Unish Shrestha
Daniel Vicic
Matthew Vicic
Our team will compete in 67 individual events at this meet. Good luck to the team and may the whale be with you all!