NSW State Age Short Course Championships 14 August 2007 Peter-Johnston Latest News Anthony Ventra will represent Merrylands A.S.C. at the 2007 NSW State Age Short Course Championships at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre this weekend. This will be Anthony's first State Championships and he will be our club's first representative at the meet since 2005. Anthony will be competing in the following events at the meet: Anthony Ventra 13yrs 100m Breaststroke (Day 1 - Session 2 - 9:38am) Times should be used as a guide only. Congratulations to Anthony on qualifying and we wish him the best of luck at the meet. You can follow the team's progress over the weekend at http://www.nswswimming.com.au/. See Also 2007 NSW State Age Short Course Championships - Program of Events 2007 NSW State Age Short Course Championships - Qualifying Times State, Metropolitan and Country Championship Procedures Competitor Information Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre Parking Arrangements
Cumberland Development Squads Announced 13 July 2007 Peter-Johnston Latest News The 2007 Cumberland Development Squads have been announced and congratulations to the following 4 swimmers from our club who have been selected: Achiever Squad Amber Johnson Mitchell Burt Anthony Ventra Dylan Baker Congratulations to all the swimmers, in particular Dylan who has been selected for the first time. Swimmers in the squads will be receiving letters soon detailing the Squad's activities. Peter Johnston will also be a coach for the Development Squads, having been selected to be a coach of the Achiever Squad. Updated 17/9/2007 Timothy Tunks has been added to the Novice Squad and Peter Johnston has been selected as a coach of the Target Squad. See Also Swimming Cumberland 2006 Squad Members 2005 Squad Members 2004 Squad Members 2003 Squad Members 2002 Squad Members 2001 Squad Members
Metropolitan Short Course Results 01 July 2007 Peter-Johnston Latest News Merrylands had 3 top 15 finishes at this weekend's 2007 NSW Metropolitan Short Course Championships at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre. On Saturday afternoon Anthony Ventra took 0.23 off his personal best in the 200m Breaststroke to finish in 14th place. Later in the 100m Breaststroke, after a fast first 50m he tired in the second 50m, finishing 13th in his second fastest time ever, just outside his PB. In this morning's session, Amber Johnson overcame the nerves and preasure of her first Metropolitan Championships since 2004 to swim to 14th place in the 100m Backstroke, breaking her PB by 0.79 seconds and improving her ranking by 5 places. Congratulations to both Amber and Anthony on their results. The full results are now available here. See Also 2007 NSW Metropolitan Short Course Championships - Results 2007 NSW Metropolitan Short Course Championships Team
NSW Metropolitan Short Course Championships 25 June 2007 Peter-Johnston Latest News The 2007 NSW Metropolitan Short Course Championships will be held at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre on Saturday 30th June & Sunday 1st July, 2007. The club will be represented by 2 swimmers at the meet, competing in 3 individual events. Amber Johnson will compete at her first Metropolitan Championships since last qualifying three years ago when she swam the 50m Backstroke at the Championships in 2004. Anthony Ventra will compete at the Short Course Championships for the second time and this year, he unexpectedly adds the 200m Breaststroke to his events, having taken over 20 seconds off his time at the Cumberland Short Course Meet in May to qualify for the event. Our team will be competing in the following events over the two day meet: Anthony Ventra 13yrs & Under 200m Breaststroke (Day 1 - Session 2 - 1:45pm) 13yrs 100m Breaststroke (Day 1 - Session 2 - 4:03pm) Amber Johnson 14yrs 100m Backstroke (Day 2 - Session 3 - 10:09am) Times should be used as a guide only. Congratulations to the 2 swimmers for qualifying and good luck at the meet. You can follow the team's progress over the weekend at http://www.nswswimming.com.au/. See Also 2007 NSW Metropolitan Short Course Championships - Program of Events 2007 NSW Metropolitan Short Course Championships - Qualifying Times State, Metropolitan and Country Championship Procedures Competitor Information Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre Parking Arrangements
Service Excellence Awards 18 June 2007 Peter-Johnston Latest News Congratulations to Jim and Glad Pye who were awarded Swimming NSW Service Excellence Awards at the Swimming NSW Annual General Meeting on Saturday. The Service Excellence Award recognises outstanding service to Swimming NSW by an individual member who has given at least ten years outstanding service to swimming. Jim & Glad have both been members of Swimming NSW for over 35 years, volunteering at all levels with in the sport from Club through to International level. The Service Excellence Awards follow the naming of the Glad & Jim Pye Club Room at the end of 2006 in recognition of their service to our club. Congratulations to Jim and Glad on their awards. See Also Glad & Jim Pye Honoured The Glad and Jim Pye Club Room Mrs Glad Pye, Life Member - Biography Mr Jim Pye, Life Member - Biography
Metropolitan Short Course Entries 04 June 2007 Peter-Johnston Latest News Entries for the 2007 NSW Metropolitan Short Course Championships close on Tuesday, 12th June, 2007. The entries are to be on Multi-Entry Cards. To compete at these championships you must have achieved the required qualifying time at an approved meet as detailed on the Qualifying Time Information page. The Multi-Entry cards must be completely filled out including date and place that times were achieved. Entries must also include your registration number. For more information on NSW meets read the Championship Procedures information in the Swim Meets Section. No late entries will be accepted. See Also 2007 NSW Metropolitan Short Course Championships - Program of Events 2007 NSW Metropolitan Short Course Championships - Qualifying Times Qualifying Time Information Meet Entry Procedures State, Metropolitan and Country Championship Procedures Competitor Information Schedule of Constants Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre Parking Arrangements
2006/2007 Presentation Evening 31 May 2007 Peter-Johnston Latest News A mixture of new and well known names took home awards from our Annual Presentation Evening held on Saturday. For the first time, Mitchell Burt was awarded the Michael Rossek Trophy as the highest placed Junior Boy in the Graded Races Pointscore while Amber Johnson received the Ronald Exley Trophy for the highest placed Junior Girl for the fifth time. Taysha Wilson was presented with The Jack Smart Encouragement Award after steadily improving over the season and the Relay Competition title was successfully defended by the "Swimmers" (Dylan Baker, Anthony Ventra, David Wang, Nathan Legge, Mitchell Burt) after easily winning their second title. Peter Johnston won the Senior Handicap for a record equalling sixth year while in our Winter Season Anthony Ventra and Belinda Sloane won the male and female Graded Pointscore competitions - both their first competition wins. Anthony Ventra also took home the Lions Club Award for Clubmanship. In one of the closest ever finishes to the Champion of Champions Competition, Brittany Johnson finished just 15 points ahead of Peter Johnston to win the competition for the fourth time. Learn to Swim instructors were recognised again this year for their efforts over the season. Our Austswim qualified instructors were presented with an Instructor's hat to thank them for their work running the program. Four awards were presented to members of Merrylands Swimming Squad for their efforts at Swimming Training throughout the season. All four swimmers were first time recipients of the Coach's Awards with Angela Guaricci, Belinda Sloane, David Wang and Dylan Baker all taking home a club beanie. The night was very enjoyable and those people that stayed after the presentation had a good time. Thank you to all the people who helped organise the presentation and who helped throughout the season. You can find the season results in the Club Races section and the full list of other awards presented on the night in the Presentation section. See Also Presentation Evening Graded Pointscore Results Championship Results Senior Handicap Results Relay Competition Results Champion of Champions Results Junior Excellence Award Recipients Feature: The History of The Graded Pointscore Feature: The History of The Senior Handicap
Introducing JX 15 May 2007 Peter-Johnston Latest News The new Australian Junior Excellence Program (JX) recognises, rewards and encourages junior swimmers who, through their development of aquatic skills and fitness, achieve a high standard of swimming excellence. Under the Program, swimmers aged from 9 to 13 years who accomplish times set by Swimming Australia qualify at Gold, Silver, Bronze or Green standard, depending on their best performance/s during the season. For doing so, the qualifiers receive special recognition by way of: a distinctive JX cap (9 & 10 year-olds) or a special JX shirt (11 to 13 year-olds) a JX certificate of achievement signed by the National Youth Coach and Grant Hackett the captain of the Australian Swim Team a JX motivational poster featuring elite Australian swimmers a poster depicting the local athlete development pathway publication of their name on the Swimming Australia website Our club's first JX qualifiers will be announced and presented with their awards at this year's Presentation Evening on Saturday, 26th May, 2007. For more information on the Australian Junior Excellence Program, see the Development section of our website. See Also Club & Swimmer Development Presentation Evening Swimming Australia - Australian Junior Excellence Program
Training Moves to Wentworthville 10 May 2007 Peter-Johnston Squad Training News Swimming Training moves to Wentworthville Swimming Centre next week. Training Times will be adjusted slightly from May 14 and are detailed on the Training Schedule page here. Note that there is no training for the Sharks on Tuesdays or Thursdays and no training for Dolphins on Thursdays. There will be no pool sessions held during July while the pool is closed for maintenance and we will use this opportunity to give the swimmers a break. See Also Training Schedule
The Senior Handicap 09 May 2007 Peter-Johnston Features The Senior Handicap is one of the tightest competitions of the summer season. As with the Graded Point Score, the competition is held every week of the summer season so swimming consistently is important. However strategy can also play a part in the competition. The Senior Handicap is held for swimmers aged 17 years and over and is the competition with the greatest potential for confusion among both rookie competitors and officials. The Handicap is the only competition held where the swimmers start the race at different times. Swimmers are seeded in races based on their entry time but are given a time handicap (which is based on their entry time). The slowest swimmer starts on ‘Go’ and the other swimmers start as their handicap numbers are called. Points are awarded based on placings in each heat, with 8 points for 1st place in a heat down to 1 point for 8th place. The staggered start leads to very close finishes with all the swimmers in a heat often separated by less than a second, really testing the Finish Judges and Recorders. As with the Graded Point Score, seed times are calculated based on the swimmers best time from their last three handicap races. So if a competitor swims faster than their seed time, the next week they will have a faster seed time and therefore a higher handicap. But there is a catch, if a swimmer beats their seed time by more than two seconds, they are disqualified and receive no points for the race. They also have to swim against that time the next week. If a competitor swims slower than their seed time three weeks in a row, then the following week their seed time will be slower and they will have a lower handicap. These weekly changes to the seed times, and as a result the swimmer's handicaps, mean that from one week to the next, swimmers may move around within their heat or even from one heat to another. With all of these variables, strategy can play a part in the competition. Do you go for the win in your heat and possibly risk disqualification or are you happy to settle for second or third this week? But whether you have a strategy or not, you still need to swim well each week. If you are looking for some tips, Glenda Wood is the person to ask. Just don't expect too much help, after all, she is still competing for the trophy herself each week. Did you know? In the last 26 seasons, only 14 different swimmers have won the competition as many of them have won it on multiple occasions. 6 swimmers have won the competition more than once. Glenda Wood, Amanda Smart, Margaret Edwards, Jim Hayes, Peter Johnston and Glen Stanford. Glenda Wood has won the competition the most times, winning it on 6 occasions. Peter Johnston has the longest winning streak, winning the competition 5 years in a row from 1999/2000 to 2003/04. There has been 3 seasons where there was a tie for first place in the competition. In 1981/82 Glenda Wood and B. Taylor shared the trophy. 10 years later in 1991/92 the trophy was jointly awarded again, this time to Jim Hayes and Laurie Hamilton. In 1995/96, Amanda Smart and Michelle Hayes finished equal first. The highest handicap this season was 28 seconds. Malcolm Bleeker had to swim off this time on 3 occasions. The current Handicap Trophy was first awarded in 1980/81 and was donated by the J. Taylor Family. Past Winners 1980/81 G. Pedley 1981/82 Glenda Wood, B. Taylor 1982/83 Glenda Wood 1983/84 Glenda Wood 1984/85 Amanda Smart 1985/86 Margaret Edwards 1986/87 Lyn Daly 1987/88 L. Stephan 1988/89 Graham Edwards 1989/90 Jim Hayes 1990/91 Jim Hayes 1991/92 Laurie Hamilton, Jim Hayes 1992/93 Amanda Smart 1993/94 Margaret Edwards 1994/95 Glenda Wood 1995/96 Amanda Smart, Michelle Hayes 1996/97 Michael Sutherland 1997/98 Glenda Wood 1998/99 Glenda Wood 1999/2000 Peter Johnston 2000/01 Peter Johnston 2001/02 Peter Johnston 2002/03 Peter Johnston 2003/04 Peter Johnston 2004/05 Glen Stanford 2005/06 Glen Stanford See Also Senior Handicap Race By-Laws