Merrylands continued their fantastic run on Day 3 at the Australian Masters Championships with 2 medals, 4 new personal best times and 3 season bests.
Varant kicked off the day with a fantastic 400m Individual Medley in which all strokes improved to take over 20 seconds off his previous best time. Varant earned himself a silver medal in his age group for his performance.
The next event was the splash and dash with our swimmers all bringing the speed in the 50m Freestyle. Leanne swam her fastest time in 2 years.
Kylee took almost a second off her personal best time, which she had set in 2019, finishing in 8th place.
Varant swam his second fastest time, and was 0.05 outside the PB that he set last weekend, while Alison came 6th in her age group.
In the 200m Backstroke, Kylee continued her strong form and achieved a new personal best time, taking over 2 seconds off her best, which was set 2 years ago.
Alison swam a perfectly split race for a season best and a gold medal.
Last up was the 50 Butterfly where Kylee set another personal best, winding back the clock and beating her previous best from 2019!
Varant had a strong start in his 50 Butterfly and while the last 10m was tough, still managed to swim his 3rd fastest time.
Alison swam a season-best time and had a top 10 finish.
Day 4 tomorrow with our team taking to the pool in the 400m Freestyle, 50m Backstroke and 100m Breaststroke.
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Day 2 of the Masters Swimming Australia National Championships saw our team win 2 medals, swim 3 PBs and 4 season best times.
Varant Jambazian and Kylee Murray continued their strong momentum from yesterday, and Leanne Tovkach and Alison Johnston commenced their campaign.
The 200m Breaststroke was the first event of the day, and Varant flew out the gate with an amazing performance, splitting a new personal best at the 100m mark and taking 6 seconds off his 200m time overall to finish 4th in his age group.
Alison opened her meet with the 200m Butterfly and while the piano truly hit at the 175m mark Alison managed to hold on for a Bronze medal.
The 100m Freestyle was next and Leanne swam her fastest time in 2 years with her 4th fastest swim ever. An even more impressive feat, as Leanne has been unwell for the past few weeks, but her solid training block prior to this has paid off!
Kylee reduced her time from State last weekend and swam her 2nd fastest 100m Freestyle ever, coming in 6th place.
Varant continued his run of personal best times taking almost a second off the time he achieved at State Championships last weekend.
Alison swam her fastest 100m Freestyle since 2023 and won a silver medal in a big field in her age group.
In the 100 Backstroke Leanne swam her second fastest time ever, while Kylee swam her fastest time in 6 years.
Day 3 tomorrow sees our team competing in the 400m Individual Medley, 50m Freestyle, 200m Backstroke and 50m Butterfly.
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Wow! What a start to the Australian Masters Championships with the 800m Freestyle on Day 1. Merrylands had two representatives in this event and we are extremely proud of their performances!
Varant Jambazian swam a new personal best time, taking over 45 seconds off his previous best, which was set in the club championships in December last year. Varant did a great job with his pacing to swim a very controlled race to finish just outside the medals with 4th in his age group.
Kylee Murray also swam a new personal best time, beating her time from 2023 by 12 seconds to finish in 6th place. Along the way, Kylee swam season-best times in her 200m and 400m splits and held on for a wonderful result!
Congratulations to Varant and Kylee on their swims.
Day 2 tomorrow will feature our team in the 200m Breaststroke, 200m Butterfly, 100m Freestyle and 100m Backstroke.
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The Australian Masters Championships will be held in Melbourne from Tuesday 8th to Saturday 12th April 2025.
Merrylands will be represented by a team of 5 swimmers, competing in 44 individual events over the 5-day meet. Our team consists of:
- Varant Jambazian
- Ian Johnston
- Kylee Murray
- Alison Johnston
- Leanne Tovkach
Good luck to our swimmers at the meet!
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We are pleased to announce that from 1st April 2025, Alison Johnston has been appointed as our new Head Coach.
Alison has been coaching since 2015 and has achieved outstanding results across the club's representative teams. She has coached finalists at the NSW Metropolitan, NSW State Age and NSW State Open Championships and has also coached swimmers to the Australian Age Championships and Australian Masters Championships.
We are excited to have Alison take on this key role. Please give her your full support and help her wherever possible.
Peter will continue to be involved in the squad program, coaching some of our junior swimmers and assisting Alison where needed.
Congratulations to Leo Zhu on setting a new record in the 50m Butterfly Championship this morning.
Leo set a new record in the 15yrs 50m Butterfly in a time of 31.41, taking 0.93 seconds off the record held by Michael Kelleher since 2004.
Congratulations to Leo on his swim.
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The 2025 Merrylands SwimFest Swim Meet will be held at Merrylands Swimming Centre on Saturday, 15th February, 2025.
Entries are open, and will close on Saturday, 1st February, 2025. This is our club's carnival so all club members are expected to attend.
For more information visit the Merrylands SwimFest section of our website.
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Our last training session for 2024 will be held on Thursday, 19th December, while our last week of club races will be held on Saturday, 21st December.
Club Races start at 7am as usual, and will include Novelty Events after the regular races.
Club Races will resume on Saturday, 6th January, 2025 with Training resuming on Monday, 6th January.
Our Christmas Party will be held on Saturday, 21st December in conjunction with the Club Races from 7am to 9:30am. All squad members are encouraged to attend the club races and novelty events. We would love to see you there. Enter online here.
Are going to be away at all in December or January?
If you will be away, then please complete the form below to indicate your last day of training and your first day back.
Training Break Form
The Committee and Coaching Staff hope you have enjoyed the first part of the season. Have a Merry Christmas and keep training hard as school carnivals and the Merrylands SwimFest approaches.
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Merrylands' team of 36 swimmers raced hard for club pride at the Inter-Club Cup at Wentworthville Memorial Swimming Centre yesterday. We had swimmers aged from 6 to 72 and everyone united to earn points for the club.
Our team put in a valiant effort and came away with 40 new personal best times. We had 55 top-3 swims, including 19 first-place finishes!
Congratulations to Parramatta City Swim Club's 54 swimmers who retained the cup this year and thank you to McCredie Park Aquatics Club for hosting.
Thank you to our parents for assisting with timekeeping and our technical officials for supporting the meet.
Merrylands will be represented by a team of 37 swimmers this afternoon as we take on Parramatta City and McCredie Park for the 2024 Cumberland Inter-Club Cup.
This year is the 10th running of the cup, and it will be the first time McCredie Park will host it at Wenworthville Swimming Centre.
We wish all our swimmers the best of luck for the meet. Many are swimming in their first swim meet outside of club races. Have a great time, and may the whale be with you!
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