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.

Our team of four swimmers achieved excellent results at the Metro South West Long Course Championships over the weekend.

The meet kicked off with the Open 50 Breaststroke.  Brendan was the first to swim and achieved a solid season best time.  The girls were up next and Laura-Belle took a massive 2.5 second chunk off her previous time and Sophia was right on her entry time.

The Open 50 Butterfly followed with Brendan having another top swim, getting under the 31 second mark.

Laura-Belle had a cracker of a swim in the 14 Year Girls 100m Freestyle taking over 5 seconds off her previous best time.

The Open 50 Backstroke was a PB-a-thon for the girls with Sophia, Laura-Belle and Alison all reducing their times.

The last event for Saturday was the Open 50m Freestyle. Brendan took a second off his entry time to dip under 29 seconds. Laura-Belle achieved another PB to keep Sophia on her toes, who followed with a solid time.  Alison was a finalist in the event, coming 8^th overall.

There was no signs of fatigue on Day 2 as our swimmers continued to excel. Brendan achieved a Season Best in the Open 100 Backstroke, earning himself a ribbon in the process.  He then raced to the other end of the pool to back straight up for a gutsy 50 Butterfly, which was within a second of the time set the day before.

Alison earned the first medal of the meet, picking up a Bronze in the 17/Over 50m Butterfly.

The second medal of the meet was from Alison in lane 1 of the Open 100m Freestyle, picking another bronze.  Not to miss out on the “skins” action, Alison made her way to the other end to back up with a 50m Backstroke straight after.  The ribbon was appreciated, the lactic was not.

Brendan dipped under the 29 mark again in the Men’s 17/Over 50m Freestyle to pick up another ribbon and beat his time from the previous day.  A gold was won by Alison in the Women’s event, with the time also faster than the previous day.

The 17/Over 50m Breaststroke was next, with Brendan coming 4^th and 0.1 outside the time he swam the previous day.  Alison also came 4^th in the Women’s event.

Laura-Belle finished the meet off with a bang in the 14 Year Girls 100m Breaststroke. Laura-Belle took a huge 7 seconds off her previous mark and achieved a top 10 finish in the process.

Congratulations to all our swimmers on their wonderful performances!

Medal Tally

Gold - 1
Bronze - 2
Top 10 - 8

Merrylands will send a team of 4 swimmers to the Metro South West Senior Long Course Championships.  The Championships are being held at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre on the 2nd and 3rd November, 2019.

Our team is competing in 22 individual events over the weekend.

Good luck to Laura-Belle, Brendan, Alison and Sophia!

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!

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.

Merrylands SwimFest & Masters BPS Meets

Last Saturday saw Merrylands “Super Saturday” events held (why weren’t FoxSports covering these?) with club races followed by the Masters BPS & SwimFest meets. What a day! This was the first time we have thrown the dice holding both meets on the one day. I believe we achieved a great result, with positive feedback about both events and we finished almost 40 minutes ahead of schedule, despite an unplanned late start to the Masters BPS meet.

The Masters BPS Meet saw ten 1st place, three 2nd place & two 3rd place finishes in individual events. Overall Merrylands finished 5th in the Team Pointscore.

The SwimFest saw a total of 50 PB’s achieved with medals won by:

Matthew Vicic also achieved further State qualifying times in the 100m Butterfly (2 PB’s in the 1 event). Congratulations to every one of our swimmers who competed in these meets.

Did you know?

On average, swimmers receive $66 worth of awards at club championships and the presentation evening each year, but on average only pay $32 in race entry fees throughout the season. The $34 difference is made up through fund raising activities such as the SwimFest and Masters meets, which we couldn’t run without your help. Thank you to everyone who helped organise and run the meets. It was a great club effort, with the majority of our members being at the pool the whole day and into the evening by the time we had packed up. Only 356 sleeps to the next Merrylands Super Saturday!!!

Swimming NSW Junior Metropolitan Championships

We have 4 of our junior club members who qualified to compete at the Metropolitan Championships at SOPAC this weekend. We wish great swims to Matthew Vicic (100m Freestyle, 100m Butterfly, 50m Freestyle & 50m Butterfly), Helen Macpherson (50m Freestyle & 50m Butterfly), Summer Shrestha (50m Freestyle & 50m Butterfly) and Niushka Shrestha (50m Butterfly). May the whale be with you all.

Relay Nominated Time Changes

If your relay team would like to change their nominated time, you need to provide the new time to the Race Secretary BEFORE the relay event is swum on Saturday 9th March, 2019.

50 metre & 200 metre Freestyle Championship re-schedule

The 50 metre Freestyle Age & 200 metre Freestyle Open Championships have been re-scheduled to next Saturday (9th March, 2019). The 50 metre Backstroke and 50 metre Freestyle, as well as the 200 metre Open Championships for these strokes will be swum on the same day.

Entries submitted for the Freestyle Championships will be carried over from 9th February. No late entries for the Freestyle Championships will be accepted. You will be required to enter the Backstroke Championships and any other events you want to swim (regular races, handicap etc.). See the online entries for exactly how many events you may enter and the order of events. Championship entries are $1 as usual. There will be no entry fee for the other events.

Metro South West Area Long Course Sprint Meet – Saturday 23rd March, 2019

Entries for this meet, to be held at Blacktown Aquatic Centre on Saturday 23rd March, 2019, close on Tuesday 19th March, 2019 at 11.00pm. Our club is also rostered for hosting duties at this meet. This will require a number of people to assist with roles such as medals, result running and refreshment delivery. Please advise Graham if you can help with the hosting roles on the day.

Club Uniform – Hoodie Orders

With the cooler weather coming Margaret is now taking orders for club hoodies. Visit the online shop to place an order for all club uniform apparel.

Swimming NSW Membership System Change

The new membership system (Swim Central) will now be implemented by Swimming NSW for our Area on Monday 11th March, 2019. Members aged 18 & over will require a unique email address. Please log in to https://mylane.swimming.org.au/ to update your contact details.

Swim Central requires that all members under 18 be part of a linked family group, with an adult aged 18 or over set as the primary member. So what do you need to do? If an adult member of your family is a member of the club – either a swimmer, or non swimmer – you don’t need to do anything. If you don’t have an adult member of your family as a member of the club, you will need to start a membership application, but cancel it before payment. See https://nsw.swimming.org.au/news-articles/swim-central-coming for details.

Keep your contact details on your membership records up to date as we can't contact you about pool closures, changes to club or training if your contact details aren't correct. Your login details are the same as the ones used for online entries. Log in to https://mylane.swimming.org.au/ to check yours are correct.

50th Anniversary Celebrations

The 50th Anniversary Dinner will be held on Saturday 6th April, 2019 at the Holroyd Centre. For more details & tickets visit https://www.merrylandsasc.asn.au/50thanniversary/

Upcoming Events

Thank you to our sponsors for their support of our club

On what was a very long day for all our swimmers and helpers due to running two carnivals on the same day, Merrylands swimmers excelled and our club’s wonderful team culture was on display yet again.

The swimmers warmed up with coaches Alison and Katie before getting stuck into their races and achieving some wonderful results. Club Captain Michael was the first to swim and started the club off with the first PB of the day in the 200IM, one of many PBs to come!

Our 50m Breaststrokers achieved 11 Personal Best times, with our Speedo Finalist Unish bagging a gold medal to start our medal tally off with a bang! Matt achieved a bronze whilst Hayley and Peter raced away with gold medals and both set the record for the 17 & Over age group due to it being a new event.

Next up were our 100m Butterfliers with Matt swimming 2 PBs in the one event: a new 50m PB at the turn and a 100m PB at the finish, while also gaining himself another State qualifying time. Another 2 PBs followed in this event, backed all the way by the cheering of our team.

Our 50m Backstrokers continued on in fine form with medals galore. Matt and Alison gained silver and Joab, Michael and Hayley achieved bronze medals.  6 more PBs were added to the tally.

Our 100m Breaststrokers continued to drop times with 5 PBs dropping more than 30 seconds between them!

The 50m Freestyle was hotly contested with Joab swimming a PB to earn himself a gold medal.  Matt and Alison also earned gold with Alison setting the 17 & Over Record (to one day be beaten by one of her squad members).  Summer bagged herself a silver in a close finish and Hayley added to her stash with a bronze. 10 PBs were achieved during this event.

3 more PBs were achieved in the 100m Backstroke, with Sophia smashing her time (to just outswim her brother and have bragging rights for another day) and Bree taking a tidy 8 seconds off her time.

Merrylands had 20 swimmers in the 100m Freestyle and 7 more PBs were achieved! Elie smashed his time taking 9 seconds off his previous mark.

The end was in sight but not before the 50m fly was contested. Matt achieved his second 50m fly PB for the day and added to his gold medals.  Sophia and Alison picked up more silver bling and Hayley and Michael added to their stash with bronze. 3 PBs were achieved in the process.

The last events of the day were the hotly contested relays!

In the 10 & Under Relay, Unish, Lisa, Joab and Niushka combined forces to pick up silver medals.

The 12 & Under Relay team of Summer, Nevah, Helen and Matt were in a tight finish and achieved bronze.

Congratulations to all our swimmers on the results from the meet.  Together we achieved 50 new personal best times, 7 gold medals, 6 silver and 8 bronze. Thank you to everyone who attended the meet and to all the members of our club and other volunteers who worked at the meet, we couldn't have run it without you and you did an amazing job. The results of the meet are now available in the SwimFest section of our website.

Merrylands Swimming Centre

Welcome back to Merrylands Swimming Centre. Those who attended club races last Saturday morning enjoyed an “away game” at Wentworthville Swimming Centre, but it is great to be back home for the remainder of the season. Council has worked hard over the last week to empty, clean and fill the pool ready for use this week, so we thank them for this work.

50 metre & 200 metre Freestyle Championship re-schedule

The cancellation of club races on Saturday 9th February, 2019 has meant the 50 metre Freestyle Age & 200 metre Freestyle Open Championships have been re-scheduled to Saturday 9th March, 2019. The 50 metre Backstroke and 50 metre Freestyle, as well as the 200 metre Open Championships for these strokes will be swum on the same day.

Entries submitted for the Freestyle Championships will be carried over to the 9th March, 2019. No late entries for the Freestyle Championships will be accepted.

Swimmers will be able to enter two other events on the morning in addition to the Championship races. Keep an eye on the club website for further details of the program and order of events for the morning.

Metro South West Junior Area Championships

13 swimmers competed in the MSW Area Junior Championships at SOPAC last Saturday. Great results were achieved, with a total of 43 new PB’s. Medals were won by Unish Shrestha (50m Breaststroke - Silver), Matthew Vicic (50m Butterfly - bronze) and Summer Shrestha (50m Freestyle - bronze).

Finalists across a total of 20 events were Joab Hada (50m Breaststroke, 100m Backstroke, 50m Backstroke & 50m Freestyle), Summer Shrestha (50m Breaststroke & 50m Backstroke), Laura-Belle Casey (50m Breaststroke & 100m Breaststroke), Matthew Vicic (100m Freestyle, 100m Butterfly, 50m Backstroke & 50m Freestyle), Unish Shrestha (50m Butterfly, 50m Backstroke & 50m Freestyle), Helen Macpherson (50m Backstroke & 50m Freestyle), Nevah Shrestha (50m Backstroke) & Niushka Shrestha (50m Freestyle & 100m Butterfly).

An outstanding effort by our Junior members as they continue to break PB’s and achieve wonderful results at meets representing our club. Thank you to our club coaches who have worked hard to have our swimmers peaking for these events and also to our parents who supported and worked as timekeepers during the afternoon session. It was a long day and we are proud of every one of our swimmers who competed on the day.

Merrylands SwimFest & Masters BPS Meets – Saturday 23rd February, 2019

Today is the day of our Masters BPS and SwimFest meets. Thank you in advance to everyone who has volunteered their time today to help with the meets. It will be a long day and I know we will again show how well Merrylands ASC can host these events.

Relay Nominated Time Changes

If your relay team would like to change their nominated time, you need to provide the new time to the Race Secretary BEFORE the relay event is swum on Saturday 9th March, 2019.

Club Uniform – Hoodie Orders

With the cooler weather coming Margaret is now taking orders for club hoodies. Visit the online shop to place an order for all club uniform apparel.

Learn to Swim

The next Learn to Swim lessons will be held on Saturday 2nd March, 2019.

Swimming NSW Membership System Change

Swimming NSW will be switching to a new membership system (Swim Central) on 25th February, 2019. As part of the change all members aged 18 & over will require a unique email address. Please log in to https://mylane.swimming.org.au/ to update your contact details.

Please remember to keep your contact details on your membership records up to date. We can't contact you about pool closures, changes to club or training if your contact details aren't correct. Log in to https://mylane.swimming.org.au/ to check yours are correct today. Your login details are the same as the ones used for online entries.

50th Anniversary Celebrations

The 50th Anniversary Dinner will be held on Saturday 6th April, 2019 at the Holroyd Centre. For more details & online booking visit the 50th Anniversary section.

Technical Officials

Would you like to obtain a technical accreditation? Most roles are now available with an online module. Details can be found at https://nsw.swimming.org.au/technical-officials-nsw. Age is from secondary school student up. Best of all these modules are free to members of Swimming NSW. Please see Graham for more information.

Upcoming Events

Thank you to our sponsors for their support of our club

Whales Tales Online

Do you want the weekly Whales Tales delivered straight to your inbox? Simply sign-up online, and never miss the latest news.

Training will return to Merrylands Swimming Centre on Tuesday, 19th February. The centre will be open for morning training.

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