With the NSW Country Championships just over a month away swimmers are running out of chances to secure their spot at the Sydney meeting.

The Bathurst carnival – one of the most popular remaining meetings – will feature 68 different events and hundreds of swimmers from the Mountains and Plains region.

Bathurst City Amateur Swim Club head coach Steve Howell said a lack of qualifying opportunities has placed the carnival even higher than usual on the ‘to-do’ list for many of the region’s swimmers.

“This is one of the bigger meetings in the Mountain and Plains area,” he said.

“Swimming NSW shuffled the championships around by putting the State Long Course Championships back to December. What that meant was clubs were running around trying to cram their meetings in before the State Championships.

“Now we’ve got the Country Championships in February, but as a result of that change there aren’t too many chances for swimmers to earn a qualifying time for that now. That’s actually been great for us because it means we've had to close entries early, having over 1600 entries.

“It increases the quality of racing and it reduces the times you’ll see because they don’t have as many chances left to qualify.”

Plenty of home city swimmers have been busy preparing for the meeting, some already having qualified for Country, while others will still be out to reach the necessary mark.

The carnival signals the start of a busy schedule for the Bathurst group.

The NSW Country Regional Meet will be held at Wellington on the following Sunday, then Lithgow’s two-day Mountains and Plains Championships will be on the weekend after.

Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre plays host to the finale – the NSW Country Championships – from February 24.

It’s a busy path but one that Howell believes the Bathurst swimmers are ready to take on.

“The kids really want to do well and qualify for Country but it’s not far away. The tricky part is that they’ve only been back at training for three weeks,” he said.

You can see a lot of the kids are running around thinking ‘I haven’t got much time. I’ve really got to work hard.

“There’s a whole stack of Bathurst kids swimming here on Sunday, probably in excess of 50. Most will be doing around four events but some could be doing as many as seven or eight. Lots will be using this as a meeting to help the prepare for Country.

“Now we’re at the pointy end of the long course season and instead of some kids being seven or eight seconds away from their qualifying time they’re now just one or two away. The pressure is really building for them.

“Some of the kids have been putting a lot of effort into training and for me it’s about showing these kids that you can achieve anything if you put the work in regularly.”

The swimming at the Bathurst Aquatic Centre gets underway from 9am with the under 12s individual medley. The action is expected to go on to around 6pm with long distance freestyle events to round out the meeting.