Bathurst Swim Club members chase NSW Country qualifying times at Manning Aquatic Centre

Swimmers from across the state will descend on the Manning Aquatic Centre this Saturday for the Bathurst event, all looking to improve their personal bests and gain entry into next year's NSW Country Championships.

Bathurst Swim Club head coach Josh Stapley said after an interrupted 2021 this will be a carnival that every member will savour.

"It's one of the last chances that the older guys will get to qualify for the senior states at the end of January. This is the second last target event before then. We've also had our NSW Country qualifying times released, so this is the first chance to get country times," he said.

"We had quite a big group that qualified in winter of about 27 swimmers and obviously they didn't get to swim, due to COVID. It's a great chance for those 27 who qualified to validate those times over the long course and hopefully we'll be able to put together just as big of a team - if not bigger."

Those who qualified for the short course championship can use those times to enter the long course edition, but all of the Bathurst swimmers will be looking to improve on those efforts in order to gain better seeding.

The Bathurst carnival comes a little earlier than usual this time around, brought forward from its usual mid-January timeslot.

But one thing that hasn't changed is the large presence the home team will have.

"We have a big team for this weekend, as we usually do at home, but we took a big team to Lithgow the other day and when we were there I set the challenge of jumping back up to our biggest numbers for long course, which is over 60. They met that challenge well," Stapley said.

"I think a lot of people are using this as their first carnival. We also have a few younger guys having their first crack at a carnival, which we normally see here."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: