Author: Ben Ramsden

Full report here.

Saturday 19th

Matt and Katie in action in their individual events and the 18U girls 4×100 Medley relay team finished the carnival off with a bang for Abbotsleigh. Time to rest up now. Is it OK for the athletes to eat chocolate tomorrow Leanne?

Friday 18th

Bec, Annabelle, Kaea, Keely, Matt, Tash and Katie were in action in their individual events. The mighty 13-14yr girls lining up for two 4x50m FS relay teams. Annabelle had Weet-Bix for breakfast and set 2 new massive PBs. Tasha and Katie made it 1-2 on the podium in the 50m FS. Anybody know what they had for breakfast?

Thursday 17th

The focus was on individual events today with Imy, Annabelle, Kaea, Rani, Bec, Geoff, Katie, Tash, Keely and Katie all in action. Geoff and Katie continued their fantastic run of PBs into their respective finals. Mega congratulations to Katie with a podium finish in the 100m FS!!

Wednesday 16th

So many ‘Abbotslays’ in the pool today, and the announcer still can’t pronounce us right. Shaun, Matt and Zoe did their individual events and then came 5 team Abb relays. 20min queue in the warm up pool for a dive. Welcome back Leanne.

Tuesday 15th

Leanne crook so Brandon alone. Katie on fire again, this time in 12-13yrs 200m IM – can you be ‘on fire’ in the water? Geoff backed up super fast after an emergency pool closure to swim a fantastic 100m 16yrs BS final. Tash, Kaitlyn, Bec and Katie 4×100 18U FS Relay – 12th. Even more great support from team members not swimming. Parents a bit lost after ‘strangers’ occupied the area in front of the Abbotsleigh banner. Get well soon Leanne!

Monday 14th

Katie, Shaun, Matt, Rani and Kaitlyn start their individual events. Zoe, Ellie, Keely and Tashi combine for the 4×100 Medley Relay. Matt, Shaun, Kaea and Harry line up for the 4×100 Medley Relay. Great support from team members not swimming. And the new Abbotsleigh Club banner is christened.

Sunday 13th

Bus to Homebush in new uniforms. Collected accreditation passes (well done Brandon for overcoming some challenges). A ‘feel the water’ swim. Never felt the water at Homebush before?

Friday 11th

BIG party at Matt’s place. BUT no fizzy drinks or lollies for the athletes (Leanne’s orders). New uniforms presented (well done Helen and Liz). Poem from Leanne. Speech from Brandon. Despite a house full of swimmers there was even food left at the end.

Nationals swimmers and their parents had an afternoon of education and excitement on Friday when Matthew and Andrew Abood came to visit. The two brothers gave hands on coaching of skills and race techniques, spoke about mental preparation for major competitions, and answered questions.

Hi All

I’d like to take the opportunity to introduce and welcome Rafael Rodrigues (Raf) to our coaching team.
Raf’s qualifications include;
· Bronze accredited coach with Swimming Australia.
· Degree in Physical education
· Aust Swim teacher and assessor accreditation
· Senior First aid certificate

Raf has many years’ experience and success in coaching all levels of competitive swimming from Metro, State and National level.

Raf will initially be coaching our Bronze squad in the mornings with the aim to move into more afternoon work come term 2, if all goes well. We plan for Raf and Chris Austin to develop strong relations with the swimmers of our new improved junior development group and rebuild a quality program from the bottom up. Raf will also take on other coaching groups at times.

To meet Raf please come on down to the pool on either Monday, Wednesday or Friday morning.