Author: Ben Ramsden

Abbotsleigh Swim Club tonight devoured 40 pizzas and cake in less 10 minutes. A spokesperson for Dominos commented “I have never seen so much eaten by so few so fast”.

130 energetic swimmers, parents and coaches were joined by Mrs Poole, Abbotsleigh Headmistress, and Mrs Wheatley, Abbotsleigh Aquatic Centre Manager for our Annual Presentation Night. Club achievements were recognised and celebrated, and praise given to everyone who had contributed.

Special guest Lara Davenport, Swimming Olympic Gold Medallist, delivered a fantastic talk about striving to achieve elite goals and bouncing back from set backs. Her story and message captivated swimmers and parents alike. Despite many hungry stomachs, the room was entirely still whilst she described the downs of missing Olympic selection by 1/100th of a second, the ups of going on to win an Olympic Gold Medal, and her tactics to achieve this dramatic performance turnaround.

So popular was the event that it took an hour for the crowd to disperse after the end of the official ceremony.

Many thanks to Jo Cox for these fantastic photos of our team enjoying themselves at sopac on Saturday.

The Camp Noosa bus is packed and on its way north to Queensland with Raf at the wheel. The rest of the team are following by plane over the weekend. Leanne, Katie and Tash have headed south to Canberra with Team NSW for the State Teams Short Course Championships at the AIS. Both our girls did the club proud by posting PBs in their first event tonight. Here they are in their new uniforms.

Singapore Sports School and their Head Coach Leonard Lim Tsuyoshi visited Abbotsleigh on 8th September to train with our squads. They are selected swimmers from various Singapore swim clubs chosen to compete at NSW State Age and State Open. During their 2 weeks in Sydney they have been training with us, Knox, Willoughby and Ryde Carlile.

Late night batter making amongst a squad of intrepid swim club mums powered Abbotsleigh through our first ever Pancake Saturday on 6th September. Jo C, Jo W, Angela, Ruth, Roisin and Nipunika traded recipe and quantity advice, shopped and prepared batter so that 500 pancakes could be freshly cooked shortly after dawn broke on Saturday club morning. “I was making pancake batter at midnight” one tired mum was overhead saying as she arrived at 5:30am. Thank you everybody for a great morning. More maple syrup anyone?

Reproduced courtesy of Hills News, 28th August 2014.