Merrylands had 3 top 15 finishes at this weekend's 2008 NSW Metropolitan Short Course Championships at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre. Our swimmers also swam 6 new personal best times and achieved 3 State Age qualifying times from the 8 events contested.

Amber Johnson swam new personal best times in both of her events. Firstly in the 100m Backstroke on Saturday morning, Amber took 1.15 seconds off her time to finish in 13th place in 1:11.00 and also qualify for her first State Age Short Course Championships since 2003. On Sunday afternoon, Amber returned to compete in the Open 50m Backstroke where she took 1.21 seconds off her short course PB.

Rebecca Tuivawa, swimming in her first Metropolitan Championships for Merrylands, swam three new personal best times in her events. On Saturday afternoon in the 100m Breaststroke, Rebecca took over two seconds off her time to finish in 1:26.64 and also qualify for the State Age Championships. In the same event she also swam a new 50m Breaststroke PB.
On Sunday afternoon Rebecca broke another PB by over two seconds, this time in the 100m Backstroke where she finished in 1:16.59. In the 100m Butterfly, Rebecca finished just outside her P.B. in 1:16.04.

Anthony Ventra struggled in his first event of the weekend on Saturday morning, the 100m Breaststroke, having been unable to train for 3 of the past 5 weeks. He returned on Sunday morning for the 100m Freestyle however to take 1.84 seconds off his time and finish in 15th place in a new personal best time of 59.00. The time was good enough to qualify him for the State Age Championships in the process.
The meet ended in disappointment for Anthony however as he injured his shoulder during the 200m Breaststroke, having swam very well up to the 150m mark. We wish Anthony a speedy recovery.

Congratulations to Amber, Rebecca and Anthony on their results.

The full results are now available here.

See Also
  • 2008 NSW Metropolitan Short Course Championships - Results

  • 2008 NSW Metropolitan Short Course Championships Team