THEY’VE journeyed around the Central West and into the Blue Mountains, but this Sunday the Bathurst City Amateur Swim Club finally get their chance to host a meeting.

The Bathurst meeting is the final of the five legs in the Mountains and Plains Swimming calendar, and the final chance this year for junior swimmers to see how far they have come.

The concluding round promises to be one of the biggest, with a total of 183 swimmers, including 46 from Bathurst, entered into the carnival.

Almost one in three events will have a Bathurst swimmer participating.

Then, January will see the club’s swimmers contest the NSW State Age championships before February’s NSW Country titles, making this Sunday an important hit-out before the summer holidays.

Club members are currently undertaking up to nine training sessions a week, totalling 11 hours.

That training is also set to continue over the summer break for those still in the city, as the bigger meetings continue to draw closer.

“It’s the local carnival, so we’ve got some good numbers,” club registrar Stephen Geyer said.

“A lot of our local swimmers have relatives in the area who don’t get to travel and watch them much, so this is a great chance for them. There’s only a handful, maybe around 10 swimmers, attending a carnival in Canberra the weekend after this, so this will be the last meet of the year for a lot of the club.

“All the swimmers have been busy doing a lot of butterfly. The coach is giving them a lot of it to do to help build up their strength, which will put them in good stead for the meetings next year.”

Some Bathurst swimmers will be taking on a smorgasbord of events, even hitting the double digits in some cases.

Molly McCrossin shoulders the biggest load with 10 races to contest, while Ben McCrossin and Taylah Wade will each be taking on nine events.

It’s been a memorable season  for the club, with almost one in four Bathurst swimmers achieving a personal best time over the opening four rounds of the MPS calendar.

Warm up for swimmers will begin from 8am with the program set to start with the under 12s medley from 9am.