Speedo Sprint Heats

Merrylands will be sending a team of 16 swimmers to the Speedo Sprint Series Heats which will be held at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre tomorrow.

Our team consists of:
Aisha Abdelraheem
Ameena Abdelraheem
Lucas Alvarez
Joseph Assi
Joab Hada
Ren Jie Hum
Jhanvi Jayasinghe
Jay Shrestha
Lisa Shrestha
Nevah Shrestha
Niushka Shrestha
Ruby Shrestha
Unish Shrestha
Daniel Vicic
Leo Zhu
Lillian Zhu

Our team will compete in 58 individual events at the meet.

Good luck to our team!

Metro South West Open Water Championships

Merrylands was represented by 7 swimmers at the Metro South West Open Water Championships at the Sydney International Regatta Centre today.

Unish Shrestha and Alison Johnston both took home medals, with Unish finishing 3rd in his age group in the 2.5km event and Alison winning her age group in the 5km event.

The meet was a big learning experience for our team, especially for Unish, Daniel Vicic, Joseph Assi and Joab Hada, who were swimming in their first Open Water competition.

Well done to all our swimmers.

Metro South West Short Course Championships

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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Junior Excellence Awards

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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NSW Junior State Age Results

Merrylands' junior boys combined forces at the NSW Junior State Age over the weekend with some excellent results!  Every swimmer for the club swam a new official or unofficial personal best during the meet.

Joseph Assi qualified for this event for the first time in individual events and swam in the 10 Years 50m and 100m Breaststroke. Joseph was just outside his entry times, having already PB'd in the 50m Breaststroke 5 times since the start of the summer season!

It was Matthew Vicic's third time qualifying for this event and he competed in the 13 Years 50m Butterfly.  Matthew achieved a new personal best time of 31.68!

Unish Shrestha, Joseph Assi, Joab Hada and Daniel Vicic worked together as a team in the 10/11 Years 4x50 Freestyle and Medley Relays.  In the Freestyle relay the boys took over 3 seconds off their entry time with some extremely fast swimming.  Whilst the split times are unofficial, it is very encouraging to see what the boys are capable of doing!

Congratulations to our swimmers on their results!

Metro South West Championships

Fifteen swimmers will represent Merrylands at the Metro South West Junior Championships at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre this Saturday.

Our team will contest 47 individual events at the championships and consists of:

Ameena Abdelraheem
Lucas Alvarez
Joseph Assi
Joab Hada
Ren Hum
Avani Pradhan
Nevah Shrestha
Niushka Shrestha
Ruby Shrestha
Shreya Shrestha
Unish Shrestha
Chloe Ton
Daniel Vicic
Matthew Vicic
Leo Zhu

Congratulations to all our swimmers on qualifying, especially Ameena, Lucas, Ren, Avani, Ruby, Chloe and Leo who have all qualified for the first time.

NSW Metropolitan Results

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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NSW Metropolitan Championships

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.

Metro South West Senior Championships

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.

Metro South West Results

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

See Also