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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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.
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Merrylands will be represented by 3 swimmers at the NSW Senior State Age Championships, which start at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre today.
Our team will contest 7 events at the 6 day meet, which concludes on Thursday.
Our team consists of:
| Alison Johnston |
| |
50m Freestyle |
Day 2 (9:06am) |
| Vanessa Ozols |
| |
50m Freestyle (MC) |
Day 2 (11:27am) |
| |
200m Individual Medley (MC) |
Day 2 (1:26pm) |
| |
100m Breaststroke (MC) |
Day 3 (11:11am) |
| |
100m Freestyle (MC) |
Day 3 (1:35pm) |
| |
100m Backstroke (MC) |
Day 4 (10:53am) |
| Summer Shrestha |
| |
50m Freestyle |
Day 5 (9:17am) |
Congratulations to our swimmers on qualifying for the meet and we wish them the best of luck.
You can follow the team's progress over the weekend on the Swimming NSW Live Results or Live Stream.
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Our team of 5 swimmers had a scorcher at the NSW Metropolitan Championships held at SOPAC this weekend.
While it was hot outside our swimmers were burning up the pool with great swims and results. Our swimmers achieved 6 new personal best times.
It was Joab Hada's first time competing at this meet and he had a terrific swim in the 50m Freestyle. Joab was only 0.1 shy of the personal best time he achieved 3 weeks earlier.
Matthew Vicic dropped time in both his events. Matt dipped under 32 seconds for the first time in the 50m Butterfly and also achieved a personal best in his 50m Freestyle.
Summer Shrestha had 4 events at these Championships and saved the best for Day 2. Summer achieved a personal best in the 100m Freestyle. In her last event of the meet Summer dropped time in her 50m Freestyle to achieve a Senior State Age qualifying time.
Unish Shrestha and Joseph Assi finished off our campaign with fantastic results in the 50m Breaststroke. It was the first time for both of them at this meet and both of them dropped over a second in this event.
Congratulations to all our swimmers on their results.
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Five members will represent the club at the NSW Junior Metropolitan Championships at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre this weekend.
Our team consists of:
Summer Shrestha
Matthew Vicic
Joab Hada
Unish Shrestha
Joseph Assi
For Joseph, Joab and Unish, this is the first time they have qualified for these championships
Congratulations all our team members on qualifying and we wish them the best of luck.
Swimming NSW are live streaming the championships and they can be viewed below.
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.
Summer Shrestha and Matthew Vicic represented Merrylands at the NSW Junior Metropolitan Championships this weekend. Our small team had big results - they competed in 7 individual swims, achieved 5 new personal best times and earned 4 new State qualifying times!
On Day 1 Summer and Matthew both swam in the 12 Years 50m Butterfly where Summer achieved a new personal best time, dropping over a second to achieve her first State qualifying time of the season, while Matthew swam his second fastest 50m Butterfly time.
Summer also contested the 12 Years 50m Breaststroke and earned another State time with a 0.3 second PB.
On Day 2 Matthew had a big morning contesting the 12 Years 100m Freestyle, 50m Backstroke and 100m Butterfly within an hour and a half. Matt chipped 0.04 off his 100m Freestyle time, after achieving a PB at SwimFest a few weeks earlier. Matt then took over a second off his 50m Backstroke time, earning a State qualifying time in the process. Matt's 100m Butterfly was his 3rd fastest time, having dropped 5 seconds off his PB in the last 4 weeks.
Summer's final race was the 12 Years 50m Freestyle and she took almost a second off her PB to swim under 31 seconds for the first time. This also added to Summer's State qualifying times.
Congratulations to our team!
Summer and Matt with their coach, Alison.
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
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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.