Issue 5, 2025/2026 by Matthew Vicic - 31st October, 2025

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Saturday races Week 5 (the first championship)!!

A reminder that races start at 7:00AM, so please be there early to help set up. All the help is always appreciated.

Tomorrow is the first day of the Club Championship, and race is the 200 Individual Medley!!

MSW Long Course Championship Results!!

A huge congratulations to our 13 Whales who swam at the Metro South West Long Course Championships, at Sydney Olympic Park last weekend! 🐳

The team consisting of Gabriella Assi, Joseph Assi, Damien Chan, Marcus Chan, Tomas Dlesk, Patrick Hannan, Coralie Havea, William Johnston, Alison Johnston, Jay Shrestha, Samantha Terry, Leo Zhu, and Lillian Zhu, competed in 37 individual events across two big days of racing! Going off with a splash, all swimmers received pb’s in at least 1 of their swims! With a grand total of 23 PBs, 8 Finalists and 2 New Metropolitan qualifiers!

🐳 Go Whales!

Halloween Lolly Jar Fundraiser!

 Our Social Committee has kicked off a sweet new fundraising competition to celebrate Halloween — a Lolly Jar Guessing Game! 👻

A huge thank you to Leanne for donating the glass jar and to Sylvia for supplying the lollies, at no cost to the club. 💙The winner will be announced this week on, Saturday, 1^st of November, during club races.

Club Captains – Our Whale Pod Leaders!

We’re excited to announce the nominations for Club Captain for the 2025 season! A total of eight nominations were received — six for Male Club Captain and two for Female Club Captain.

After a few withdrawals, the confirmed nominations are listed below.

💙 Male Club Captain Nominees:

• Joseph Assi
• Jokubas Urbonas
• Matthew Vicic
• Leo Zhu

💙 Female Club Captain Nominees:

• Lisa Shrestha

🗳️ Voting opens this week!

All financial first claim members will receive a link to the online voting system, where you’ll be able to cast your vote for our next Whale leaders. Make sure you choose wisely!!

A big thank you to our outgoing Club Captains, Joseph Assi and Lisa Shrestha, for their dedication and leadership over the past season. You’ve helped steer our pod with pride! 🐋💪

Let’s celebrate everyone who put their flippers up for leadership — it’s your spirit that keeps the Whale pod strong! 🌊💙

Making a splash at the Cumberland Inter-Club Cup!

Interclub cup is now right around the corner and is approaching fast. Please ENSURE you have entered in EVERY race you can do! We have a huge shot of winning this year so let's do our best to do so!!

Entries are open, so enter fast. EVERYONE IN EVERY RACE, lets aim to win that trophy again this year!! FOR THE WHALE!!! 🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋

Walk for MND!

““Hopefully no one forgot, but in case you did the Walk to Defeat MND this Sunday the 2nd of Nov (which is next week). That's just around the corner!

Thank you to all that have supported, if you have not yet, please give what you can. 

If you still wish to attend the walk, make sure you register before. You unfortunately cannot just “showup”. 

 Let's make it a club effort to get out there and support the walk, for more information or if you would like to register click the link below: https://www.walktodefeatmnd.org.au/fundraisers/MakeasplashforMND

Thank you to all that have supported, if you have not yet, please give what you can.

If you still wish to attend the walk, make sure you register before Sunday. You unfortunately cannot just “showup”. So sign up and join us!

Lucky Draws – Fat Jak’s Vouchers

As you hopefully now know, the Fat Jak’s vouchers will go to monthly graded point score winners, Swim for Your School winners, and more throughout the season.

Chase Those PBs!

 We’re cheering on all swimmers to push for new personal bests this month! To keep things exciting, we’ll be awarding $20 FatJaks vouchers to our monthly Graded Point Score winners. So, dive in, give it your all, and you could swim your way to a tasty reward! 💪🍔 

Saturday Morning Point Score Competitions

There are three competitions run each Saturday morning that can gain you points.

🏅 Graded Races:

Swimmers are grouped by entry times and earn points based on how well they swim against their own time.

🎯 Championships:

Swimmers race within their age group (as of 1st October), with an Open Championship also available for all ages who meet the qualifying criteria.

💪 Senior Handicap:

A fun event for swimmers 17 years and over.

For more information see here: https://merrylandsasc.asn.au/clubraces/

Planning Your Championship Races

Our Club Championship races kick off in Week 5 with the 200m Individual Medley! To compete, you must have already swum that event successfully during this season.

To make sure you don’t miss out on qualifying for other Championship events, it’s important to plan your swims well ahead.

💡Here are some quick tips to help you qualify:

1. Check the Season Program to see when each Championship event is scheduled.
2. Plan your qualifying swim at least two weeks before the Championship — this gives you time to recover if you miss a week or get disqualified.
3. Stay consistent and track your progress — every swim gets you closer to championship readiness!

So, start planning, keep training hard, and let’s see those fins making waves come Championship time! 🌊🐳

Club Uniforms

We have a great range of club uniforms in stock available for sale. These can be purchased through the club’s online shop club shop . Some items may require a special order to be placed with our suppliers, so planning orders ahead of time will allow for the items to be delivered.

Lions Club Award

Seen someone that deserves recognition for their efforts in helping? Nominate them for the Lions Club Award, our peak award to recognise our volunteers over the season.

Nominate a volunteer

P-Plate Award

As the season rolls along keep an eye out for someone making a silly mistake. We like to recognise and reward all efforts during the season, and the P-Plate award is the perfect way to do this.

Nominate a silly mistake

Seen a Problem? Get it Fixed

If you see something that needs fixing you can elevate this directly with Council by logging the issue here.

Donations

Our partnership with the Australian Sports Foundation allows supporters to make tax-deductible donations to the club. Funds raised help us upgrade and maintain our equipment and systems, providing better facilities for you, our members.

We appreciate the great support our members have provided since the partnership commenced. Donations can be made here.

Upcoming Meet Calendar

Check the website for the full list of upcoming meets, closing dates, programs and qualifying times.