Merrylands' team of nine swimmers had fantastic results at the Metro South West Area Championships held at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre.

Our team contested 29 individual events and ended with 22 new personal best times, 4 finalists and 1 bronze medal.

Joseph achieved 5 new personal best times across his 4 swims, including a new 50m Freestyle PB split in his 100m Freestyle.  Joseph further reduced his 200m Breaststroke time after only just beating it at a meet last weekend.  Joseph also achieved new personal bests in his 50 and 100m Breaststroke, with his first Long Course 38 seconds in the 50m.

Laura-Belle took a break from HSC studies to scoop up a Bronze medal in her 50m Breaststroke in a new personal best time.  Laura-Belle was also a finalist with 7th place in her 100m Breaststroke which was an excellent achievement for an Open event, and was 0.02 outside her best in the 50m Freestyle.

Alison was a finalist in the 50m Freestyle and 50m Butterfly, with 6th and 4th respectively.  Her butterfly sprint was her fastest time in over 4 years.  Alison's 100m Freestyle was also her fastest in 2 years.

Jay was just a fraction off his personal best in his 100m Freestyle with only 0.1 seconds outside his mark.

Lisa had a great result in her 100m Backstroke with a 4-second personal best time and was just outside her 100m Freestyle time.

Daniel achieved 3 new Backstroke personal bests in his 2 Backstroke swims with a PB split in the 100m and then reduced it the following day in the 50m event, taking a further 2 seconds off his time.  Daniel also took over 2 seconds off his 100m Freestyle personal best.

Matthew contested 6 events and came away with 5 new personal best times.  Matthew started with a personal best in his 200m Butterfly and continued to fly with personal bests in his 100m and 50m Butterfly.  Matthew was a finalist in the 100m Butterfly and his 50m Butterfly was his first time under 30 secs in a Long Course event.  Matthew also achieved new personal best times in his 50m Freestyle and 200m Backstroke.

Leo had some fast 50s with new personal bests across his 3 swims.  Leo achieved sub 35 seconds in his 50m Breaststroke, sub 28 in his 50m Freestyle and took 0.5 off his 50m Backstroke.

Lillian achieved 2 new personal bests in her 100m Breaststroke, taking a huge 6-second chuck off her existing time. Lillian also took over 9 seconds off her 100m Backstroke later that afternoon.

Congratulations to all our swimmers on their wonderful performances!  

Our team of 13 swimmers had a massive meet at the Metro South West Long Course Championships at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre over the weekend.

Merrylands’ swimmers achieved 30 new personal best times, 8 finalists, 2 medals, and new qualifying times for State and Metropolitan Championships.

Aisha had a tremendous 100m Freestyle with a strong back end to take 5 seconds off her personal best time.

Ameena had an excellent 100m Backstroke taking 8 seconds off her PB, and almost 2 seconds off her 100m Freestyle PB.

Joseph cracked the 40-second barrier in the 50m Breaststroke for the first time and also achieved new personal bests in the 100m Freestyle, 50m Freestyle and 100m Backstroke. Joseph earned top 10 finishes in his 100m Breaststroke and 200m Individual Medley.

Laura-Belle smashed her 50s with new personal best times in the 50m Breaststroke and 50m Freestyle. She also achieved a top 10 ranking in the 50m Freestyle.

Ren achieved personal best times in both his Breaststroke events, including a new personal best in his 50m split in the 100m Breaststroke before further lowering it in the 50m event.

William had great results in his 50m Backstroke and 50m Freestyle, with a textbook head down inside the flags finish for his Freestyle. William achieved PBs and top 10 finishes for both his swims.

Alison jumped in between coaching and picked up the club’s two medals, with Silver in the 50m Butterfly and Bronze in the 50m Freestyle.

Jay had a fantastic swim in his 100m Freestyle, taking another 6 seconds off his time after dropping 16 seconds at club races 2 weeks ago and finishing in the top 10.

Lisa had a wonderful 100m Backstroke in a new personal best time while finishing just outside her PB in the 100m Freestyle.

Daniel had a ripper of a meet and achieved personal best times in all 4 of his events, including massive personal best times in his 100m Freestyle and 100m Backstroke. Daniel also equalled his 50m Backstroke PB in the 100m Backstroke split. 

Matthew was pretty fly, dropping times in his 50m and 100m Butterfly, picking up a top 10 for his 100m Butterfly in the process. He also achieved new personal best times in his 50m and 200m Freestyle events.

Leo achieved new personal best times in 4 of his events, narrowly missing out on 3^rd place in the 100m Breaststroke. Leo also cracked 30 seconds for the first time for the 50m Freestyle and finished his meet with a new personal best in the 200m Breaststroke.

Lillian was just over her 50m Freestyle time after being unwell the day before.

Congratulations to all our swimmers on their fabulous results and thank you to our coaches for preparing them for this meet. Thank you as well to Denise and Danielle for fulfilling our hosting duties and to all our parents for supporting our swimmers.

Merrylands will be sending a team of 16 swimmers to the Speedo Sprint Series Heats which will be held at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre tomorrow.

Our team consists of:
Aisha Abdelraheem
Ameena Abdelraheem
Lucas Alvarez
Joseph Assi
Joab Hada
Ren Jie Hum
Jhanvi Jayasinghe
Jay Shrestha
Lisa Shrestha
Nevah Shrestha
Niushka Shrestha
Ruby Shrestha
Unish Shrestha
Daniel Vicic
Leo Zhu
Lillian Zhu

Our team will compete in 58 individual events at the meet.

Good luck to our team!

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.

See Also

• Swimming Metro South West
• 2021 Metro South West Short Course Championships

Twenty two members have received awards in the 2021 Swimming Australia Junior Excellence Program. This is our club's highest number of recipients since the programs inception in 2006 - a fantastic effort by our swimmers!

The Australian Junior Excellence Program, recognises rewards and encourages junior swimmers who, through their development of aquatic skills and fitness, achieve a high standard of swimming excellence.

Congratulations to the following members who have received awards this year:

Silver

Chloe Ton
Lucas Alvarez
Matthew Vicic
Summer Shrestha

Bronze

Daniel Vicic
Joab Hada
Joseph Assi
Leo Zhu
Lisa Shrestha
Niushka Shrestha
Thayne Bris
Unish Shrestha

Blue

Aisha Abdelraheem
Ameena Abdelraheem
Avani Pradhan
Ceylin Uysal
Chevelle Fehir
Jorja Matthew
Nevah Shrestha
Ren Jie Hum
Ruby Shrestha
Shreya Shrestha

The full list of recipients can be found on the Junior Excellence page on the Swimming Australia website, while all our club's previous recipients can be found in the Development section of our website.

See Also

• Swimming Australia Junior Excellence Program
• Junior Excellence Program - Previous Recipients

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

• Metro South West Junior Championships Team

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.

Congratulations to Lisa Shrestha and Alison Johnston who both set new records in the 50m Freestyle Championships this morning.

Lisa set a new record in the 9yrs 50m Freestyle in a new personal best time of 38.66. Lisa's time shaved 0.05 seconds off the record set by Kristie Caplikas in 2013, and is her 3rd club record in as many weeks.

Alison swam a new record time of 29.28 in the Senior 50m Freestyle, breaking the record she set in 2018 by 0.23 seconds. Alison has now broken the record in this event 4 times in the past 5 years, and has lowered the record by 1.03 seconds over that period. 

Congratulations to both Alison and Lisa on their swims.

See Also

• Championship Records

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

• 2020 Speedo Sprint Series Heats - Team

Congratulations to Lisa Shrestha and Brendan Kirkpatrick who both set new records in the Breaststroke Championships yesterday.

Lisa set a new record in the 9yrs 50m Breaststroke in a new personal best time of 52.11. Lisa took 0.29 seconds off the record, held by Natalie Tims, which was set all the way back in the 1972/73 season.

In the Open 200m Breaststroke, Brendan took 0.39 seconds off the record set by Todd Jenkin in 2005, to finish in 2:54.59.

Congratulations to both Brendan and Lisa on their swims.

See Also

• Championship Records