Speedo Sprint Results

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

Metro South West Open Water Results

Merrylands was represented by 4 swimmers at the Metro South West Open Water Championships.  The championships were held at the Sydney International Regatta Centre on 17th November, 2019.

Matt was the first to compete, swimming in the Boys 11-13 Years JX 2.5k swim.  Matt swam a very strong race, improving on his result from last year by over 5 minutes!

Nevah and Summer were next to swim the 2.5k in the Girls event. This was the first time they have swum 2.5k in an Open Water environment and whilst there was some nervous anticipation both had solid swims and should be very proud of themselves!

Brendan swam the 5k event which was 2 laps around the course.  This was also Brendan's first time swimming this event and picked up a surprise gold in the "Boys" 26-35 Years age group.

Congratulations also to all the parents, Ruby and coach Alison who managed to up their step count for the week as they supported our swimmers around the course.

State Masters Championships & NSW Development Meet

Merrylands has a team of 5 swimming at the NSW State Masters Short Course Championships. The championships are being held at Peninsula Leisure Centre, Woy Woy over the 12th and 13th October, 2019.

The team of 5 are competing in 23 events across the weekend. Good luck to Peter, Brendan, Kylee, Alison and Leanne.

The club is also being represented by 3 swimmers at the Swimming NSW Junior Area Representative Meet at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre on Saturday.

Niushka, Summer and Matt are part of the Metro South West Area team and have been selected in 15 individual events and 3 relays between them.

Good luck to both teams. We know you will make us proud!

Metropolitan Results

Merrylands' team of 3 swimmers performed well at the NSW Metropolitan Short Course Championships on the weekend.

Alison Johnston swam her fastest time since 2017 in the 50m Freestyle, finishing in 28.30. Summer Shrestha swam her second fastest time ever in the 100m Breaststroke, just 0.09 outside the PB she swam at the Metro South West Championships 3 weeks ago, while Matthew Vicic swam a new personal best time in the 100m Butterfly, taking 0.06 off the time he swam at the Metro South West Championships.

Well done to Matthew, Summer and Alison on their swims. The results of the championships are available here.

See Also

Metropolitan Championships

Merrylands will be represented by a team of 3 swimmers at the NSW Metropolitan Short Course Championships at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre this weekend.

Our team will compete in 3 events and consists of:

Alison Johnston - 50m Freestyle
Summer Shrestha - 100m Breaststroke
Matthew Vicic - 100m Butterfly

Congratulations to all 3 swimmers on qualifying for the championships - especially Summer and Matthew who have qualified for this meet for the first time.

Metro South West Championships

Merrylands has 13 swimmers competing at the 2019 Metro South West Area Short Course Championships. The Championships will be held at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre on Saturday 29th & Sunday 30th June, 2019.

Our team consists of:

Joseph Assi
Laurabelle Casey
Brendan Kirkpatrick
Steven Nguyen
Alison Sakurovs
Nevah Shrestha
Niushka Shrestha
Shreya Shrestha
Summer Shrestha
Unish Shrestha
Daniel Vicic
Matthew Vicic
Sophia Vicic

Good luck to all our swimmers at the meet and may the whale be with you!

NSW Junior Metropolitan Championships Results

It was a big weekend for our team of four representing Merrylands at the NSW Junior Metropolitan Championships at SOPAC this weekend.

This was the first time that all members of the team have competed at this level of competition.  While there were nerves, the team performed exceptionally well.

Matt was flying solo on Saturday and swam the 11 Years 100m Freestyle in a personal best time. Matt returned on Sunday for the 11 Years 100m Butterfly and achieved his second fastest time, after having already PB'd in this event a week ago.

Niushka was up next and after having taken 5 seconds off her time to qualify for Metrops in the first place, took another 4 seconds off her time in the 9-10 Years 50m Butterfly.  This achievement also means Niushka has qualified for her first State Age Championships, to be held in 4 weeks time.

The 11 Years 50m Freestyle followed with Merrylands being represented by three swimmers.  Matt chipped away at his PB, taking another 0.1 off his time. Summer achieved her second fastest official time in this event and Helen took almost a full second off her previous mark, achieving her first time in the 33s.

The final event for our swimmers was the 11 Years 50m Butterfly and there were solid performances after a big weekend.  Matt and Helen again swum their second fastest times and Summer broke the 40 barrier for the first time with a PB.

Overall from the 9 swims our team achieved 5 PBs with the other 4 swims their second fastest times ever.

Congratulations to all our swimmers on these wonderful achievements.

Metropolitan Junior Championships

Merrylands will be represented by a team of 4 swimmers at the NSW Metropolitan Junior Championships at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre on 2-3 March, 2019.

All 4 swimmers are first-time qualifiers for the Championships, with the hard work they have put in at training over the past 12 months paying off in spades.

Our team will compete in the following 9 events:

Matthew Vicic
50m Freestyle
100m Freestyle
50m Butterfly
100m Butterfly
Helen Macpherson
50m Freestyle
50m Butterfly
Summer Shrestha
50m Freestyle
50m Butterfly
Niushka Shrestha
50m Butterfly

Congratulations to all 4 swimmers on qualifying and to their coach Alison, who has coached swimmers to the Metropolitan Championships for the first time.

You can follow the team's progress over the weekend on the Swimming NSW website.

See Also

Metro South West Junior Championships Results

Our team of 13 swimmers had another fantastic meet at the Metro South West Junior Championships, held at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre on the 16th February, 2019.

Whilst the timeline was long due to the new format, the swimmers maintained their energy and the supporters maintained their cheer!

Throughout the meet our team had many highlights including new personal best times, finalist ribbons, medals and more Metropolitan and State qualifiers.  Other highlights included the amazing cheer squad which could be heard from our insider in the recorders office, the weet-bix slice, gutsy swims with goggle malfunctions, our swimmers killer starts, our team of timekeepers and the wonderful support of swimmers gave each other throughout the long day.

Overall our team achieved 43 new personal best times over both 50m and 100m distances. Our swimmers were finalists in 20 events and also picked up some bling throughout the day!

Congratulations to all our swimmers on these great results!

Silver
Unish Shrestha - 8 Years 50m Breaststroke

Bronze
Matthew Vicic - 11 Years 50m Butterfly
Summer Shrestha - 11 Years 50m Freestyle

Finalists
Joab Hada - 9 Years 50m Breaststroke, 9 Years 100m Backstroke, 9 Years 50m Backstroke, 9 Years 50m Freestyle
Summer Shrestha - 11 Years 50m Breaststroke, 11 Years 50m Backstroke
Laura-Belle Casey - 13 Years 50m Breaststroke, 13 Years 100m Breaststroke
Matthew Vicic - 11 Years 100m Freestyle, 11 Years 100m Butterfly. 11 Years 50m Backstroke, 11 Years 50m Freestyle
Unish Shrestha - 8 Years 50m Butterfly, 8 Years 50m Backstroke, 8 Years 50m Freestyle
Helen Macpherson - 11 Years 50m Backstroke, 11 Years 50m Freestyle
Nevah Shrestha - 10 Years 50m Backstroke
Niushka Shrestha - 10 Years 50m Freestyle, 10 Years 100m Butterfly

Metro South West Junior Championships

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!