7 Medals at Metro South West Short Course Championships - Latest News

Merrylands' team of 10 swimmers won 7 medals and were finalists in 35 events at the Metro South West Area Open & Age Short Course Championships on the weekend. The club's results made this year's meet the club's most successful Short Course Area Championships ever, with 80% of our results in the top 10.

Besides the medals and finalist ribbons, 32 new personal best times were swum from 50 individual events, with a further 1 official, and 7 unofficial PBs, swum in relays at the two day meet. The PBs ranged from 0.00 seconds (or equaling their PB) to 18.6 seconds faster than their previous best, all from hard work in the training pool, rather than the aid of space-aged swim suits which have dominated the results in the World Championship pool in Rome over the past week.

The swimmer's results are even more pleasing in light of the disrupted preparation leading into the meet, due to the closure of Merrylands, Wentworthville and Guildford pools for maintenance.

Stephanie Hindle won the club's first medal of the meet, finishing a close second place in the 12yrs 100m Breaststroke on the Saturday afternoon. After a fast start, Stephanie had led the race for first 75m to finish in her second fastest time ever and win her first medal for the club. Earlier in the day, Stephanie had finished fourth in the 100m Butterfly in a new PB of 1:17.78, taking a massive 11.88 seconds off her PB. She also finished 8th in the 200m Individual Medley in a new personal best time. On Sunday, Stephanie returned to the pool to claim another two top 10 finishes, both in new personal best times, finishing 5th in the 100m Backstroke and 10th in the 100m Freestyle.

Anthony Ventra won three medals at the meet, his first medal coming in the 15yrs 100m Breaststroke, where he finished second in a new 1.11 second personal best time of 1:14.03. Anthony's second medal was also in the 100m Breaststroke, but this time the Open event, where he again finished second; only 0.10 seconds slower than the new PB he had swum earlier that afternoon. His third medal had to wait until our club's last event of the meet, as he won bronze in the 15yrs 100m Freestyle in a time only 0.03 outside his PB.
Anthony also won finalist ribbons in a further 5 events; however the highlight, at least for the crowd, was his 100m Butterfly. In an event which he doesn't usually swim, he flew through the first 50m to split in a new PB of 30.62, only to fatigue in the last 25m and be passed by the other swimmer in his heat. Yet he still swam a new PB, over 18 seconds faster than his previous best, and could laugh about it afterwards.

The Open Breaststroke events were becoming a bit of a duel for our club. In the Open 100m Breaststroke, in which Anthony had won the silver, Peter Johnston had led through the first phase of the race to eventually finish 5th in a new personal best time of 1:15.36. The new PB was 1.76 seconds faster than his previous best and Peter had to check the result sheet 3 times before believing the time.
The next morning, Peter returned to the pool for the Open 50m Breaststroke, in which he and Anthony would again go head to head. This time, Peter managed to turn the tables, as he finished third, equalling his PB of 33.53, just 0.03 ahead of Anthony who took 0.43 off his time to finish 4th in 33.56.
In the afternoon, Peter lined up for the 17yrs & Over 50m Breaststroke in which he won the silver medal in a new personal best time of 33.12.
Peter swam a further 3 personal best times at the meet, but the highlight of these was in the 200m Breaststroke where he took 5.58 seconds off his time to finish in 2:49.24.

Amber Johnson was our final medallist at the meet. Amber started off the meet strongly with a fourth place finish in the Open 100m Backstroke and a new PB in the 50m Freestyle where she went under 30 seconds for the first time to touch in 29.81. In the Open 200m Backstroke, she swam another PB, finishing in 7th place in 2:36.78, 4.23 seconds faster than her previous best. In the Open 50m Backstroke Amber again finished in the top 10, in 5th place. However the highlight of Amber's meet came in her final event as she lined up third fastest in the 16yrs 100m Backstroke. Amber had never had a better opportunity for a medal at a District/Area Championship and she delivered, touching in third place to win her first ever Championship medal. Overall Amber swam 3 new personal best times at the meet and was a finalist in 4 events.

Nine out of ten of our members were a finalist in at least one of their events with five finishes just outside the medals in 4th place. Timothy Tunks was one of those swimmers as he finished in 4th place in the 10yrs 100m Individual Medley in a new personal best time of 1:32.52. Brittany Johnson was another, finishing 4th in the 17yrs & Over 50m Breaststroke. Brittany also finished in the top 10 in seven of her eight individual events.

Steven Nguyen swam new personal best times in all of his individual events. He took 0.71 seconds off his PB to finish in 6th place in the 17yrs & Over 50m Freestyle, and then broke that time again in the Open 50m Freestyle finishing in 26.68. The highlight of his meet though was his final event, the 100m Freestyle, where took over 2 seconds off his PB to officially go under the 1 minute barrier for the first time. Felix Lo also swam new PBs in both his individual events, the best being in the 17yrs & Over 50m Breaststroke where he finished in 7th with a new PB of 37.10.

Swimming in her first Championships since 2003, Sarah Johnston finished in 9th place in the 17yrs & Over 50m Freestyle, breaking her previous best time by 0.52 seconds while Charlotte Neill swam a new unofficial PB in her leg of the 10x50m Freestyle Non-Championship Relay.

Finalist Summary:

Timothy Tunks
	10yrs 50m Freestyle	(8th)
	10yrs 50m Breaststroke	(7th)
	10yrs 100m Individual Medley	(4th)
Stephanie Hindle
	12yrs 100m Freestyle	(10th)
	12yrs 100m Backstroke	(5th)
	12yrs 100m Breaststroke	(Silver)
	12yrs 100m Butterfly	(4th)
	12yrs 200m Individual Medley	(8th)
Anthony Ventra
	16yrs 100m Freestyle	(Bronze)
	15yrs 100m Backstroke	(9th)
	15yrs 100m Breaststroke	(Silver)
	15yrs 200m Individual Medley	(8th)
	Open 50m Freestyle	(10th)
	Open 50m Breaststroke	(4th)
	Open 100m Breaststroke	(Silver)
	Open 100m Individual Medley	(5th)
Amber Johnson
	16yrs 100m Freestyle	(7th)
	16yrs 100m Backstroke	(Bronze)
	Open 50m Backstroke	(5th)
	Open 100m Backstroke	(4th)
	Open 100m Backstroke	(7th)
Felix Lo
	17yrs & Over 50m Breaststroke	(7th)
Steven Nguyen
	17yrs & Over 50m Freestyle	(6th)
	17yrs & Over 50m Butterfly	(7th)
	Open 100m Freestyle	(9th)
Brittany Johnson
	17yrs & Over 50m Freestyle	(6th)
	17yrs & Over 50m Backstroke	(6th)
	17yrs & Over 50m Breaststroke	(4th)
	17yrs & Over 50m Butterfly	(7th)
	Open 100m Freestyle	(7th)
	Open 100m Breaststroke	(7th)
	Open 200m Individual Medley	(6th)
Sarah Johnston
	17yrs & Over 50m Freestyle	(9th)
Peter Johnston
	17yrs & Over 50m Freestyle	(9th)
	17yrs & Over 50m Backstroke	(7th)
	17yrs & Over 50m Breaststroke	(Silver)
	17yrs & Over 50m Butterfly	(9th)
	Open 50m Breaststroke	(Bronze)
	Open 100m Breaststroke	(5th)
	Open 200m Breaststroke	(8th)
Boys 15yrs & Over 4x50m Medley Relay
	Anthony Ventra; Peter Johnston; Steven Nguyen; Felix Lo	(5th)
Girls 15yrs & Over 4x50m Medley Relay
	Amber Johnson; Stephanie Hindle Brittany Johnson; Sarah Johnston	(7th)

The swimmers who swam PBs were:

Charlotte Neill
	50m Freestyle (Relay Leg)	(Unofficial)
Timothy Tunks
	50m Freestyle
	50m Backstroke
	50m Butterfly
	100m Individual Medley
Stephanie Hindle
	100m Freestyle
	100m Backstroke
	100m Butterfly
	200m Individual Medley
Anthony Ventra
	50m Backstroke (Relay Leg)
	50m Breaststroke
	50m Butterfly	(100m Butterfly Split)
	100m Backstroke
	100m Breaststroke
	100m Butterfly
	100m Individual Medley
	200m Individual Medley
	50m Freestyle (Relay Leg)	(Unofficial)
Amber Johnson
	50m Freestyle
	100m Individual Medley
	200m Backstroke
Felix Lo
	50m Freestyle
	50m Breaststroke
	50m Freestyle (Relay Leg)	(Unofficial)
Steven Nguyen
	50m Freestyle (Age Event)
	50m Freestyle (Open Event)
	50m Butterfly
	100m Freestyle
	50m Butterfly (Relay Leg)	(Unofficial)
Brittany Johnson
	50m Backstroke
Sarah Johnston
	50m Freestyle
	50m Freestyle (Relay Leg)	(Unofficial)
Peter Johnston
	50m Backstroke
	50m Breaststroke (Relay Leg)	(Unofficial)
	50m Breaststroke (Open Event)	(Equal PB)
	50m Breaststroke (Age Event)
	Open 100m Freestyle
	Open 100m Breaststroke
	Open 200m Breaststroke
	50m Freestyle (Relay Leg)	(Unofficial)

Congratulations to all 10 swimmers on their performances. Overall our club finished in 12th position on 718 points, up from last year's total of 543 where we finished 14th, an especially good result considering that the competition was much tougher this year. Our male team finished in 13th place on 391 points, with our female team finishing in 14th with 327 points.
The results with splits are now available here.

Medal Tally

Gold	0
Silver	4
Bronze	3

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7 Medals at Metro South West Short Course Championships 3rd August, 2009

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