Merrylands’ team of 15 swimmers had amazing results at the Metro South West Speedo Sprint Heats held at Sydney Olympic Park today. Our team competed in 49 individual events and achieved 40 new personal best times! Every swimmer contributed to the PB tally. The Breaststroke events were particularly impressive, given we had only held our Breaststroke Club Championships yesterday, and 7 of our swimmers were able to reduce their mark twice in two days. We achieved 13 out of 15 personal bests in Breaststroke, 12 out of 15 in Freestyle, 7 out of 10 in Butterfly and 8 out of 9 in Backstroke.
Coralie built on her results from Metrops and State, finishing 5th in the 50m Freestyle and 50m Backstroke, both in new personal best times and narrowly missing a place in the finals. Coralie also achieved a new personal best in the 50m Breaststroke.
Gabriella achieved 3 from 3 new personal best times, including a 3-second personal best in 50m Butterfly.
Daniel further reduced his Breaststroke best achieved yesterday and also set a new best in the 50m Freestyle.
Grace was on fire, achieving 3 new best times, after just setting 2 of these times yesterday!
Damien dipped under the 50-second mark for the first time in his 50m Breaststroke and also set a new best in the 50m Freestyle.
Marcus was 4 from 4 with quality swimming across the board and earning some massive time drops.
Lara demonstrated solid progress in her 50m Butterfly, smashing her existing time and also setting another 3 bests.
Patrick absolutely nailed his starts and came away with 3 new best times.
Anna lowered her Breaststroke mark twice this weekend and also picked up a new best in the 50m Freestyle.
Jude also did the double Breaststroke PB this weekend and further reduced his Freestyle time.
William demonstrated tremendous skills in his starts and earned himself 3 new personal best times.
Xavier had a wonderful swim in the 50m Breaststroke, achieving a new PB after already breaking his time yesterday.
Lily took off time in both the 50m Backstroke and 50 Butterfly, almost breaking the minute for the first time.
Jay reset from the 50m Breaststroke to earn 3 new personal best times in the other events, including a scorcher in the 50m Freestyle.
Samantha achieved an 100% personal best rate and demonstrated some zippy speed work off her starts.
Our skills shone, and I would like to highlight our swimmers' starts and finishes across all age groups, showcasing the work the Development, Junior, and Novice squads have been doing at training. It has also been delightful debriefing with the swimmers after their races. Swimmers, particularly in the Development squad, are becoming more proficient at critically analysing their race, and this will assist them greatly as they progress with their swimming.
Outside of the pool, I am very pleased with our swimmers’ conduct at the meet. The support for their fellow swimmers by cheering during racing, celebrating achievements or assisting each other when to head to marshalling was fantastic.
Thank you to all the parents and siblings for their support throughout the day, and thank you to Peter and Matt for all their work to help get the kids race-ready.