Eleven Swimming Gunnedah members off to Sydney for 2022 NSW Country Championships

This week 11 of the club's swimmers will head to Sydney to compete in the NSW Country Championships.

It follows some great results at the recent area championships and local school carnivals.

"At the St Xavier's carnival the other day they broke 19 [school] records there," he said.

"The week before we did the regional carnival and broke a number of records and swam 80 pbs (personal bests) as a club."

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Several swimmers will after the country championships then turn their attention to the State Championships after achieving qualifying times.

One is aiming even higher. At the area championships Tahlia Smith swum nationals qualifying times in both her 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle.

It's the first time the club has had a swimmer qualify for nationals in Hickey's association with the club.

Attending school at Calrossy over in Tamworth, Smith trains with Nicholas Monet at Tamworth City during the week. A "very talented sprinter", Hickey said Monet has been working with her on her distance to try and get her out to 100m.

He said the great performances were the reward for all of the swimmers' hard work over the winter; not the last six weeks.

"It's not by luck they're there, they've worked really hard, they deserve it," he said.

The country championships get underway mid-afternoon on Friday and run through to Sunday, and are, Hickey said, important "to keep the momentum going that we've picked up".

"Each year we've increased our numbers," he said.

"Only one the first year, two the second and it's growing.

"We've got 11 this year and we want to hopefully increase that."

They have also qualified a couple of relay teams which is a another first for a while and shows that they have got some good depth.

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