Author: Jay Loureiro

The Abbotsleigh had 15 swimmers competing at these championships. This by itself was already a success as in 2023 the Abbotsleigh swimming club only had 7 swimmers in this same meet.

As the meet started swimmers understood that the level of the field was high, clubs and swimmers use this meet as their final chance to get a national qualifying time and therefore the focus and intensity was high. Our Abbotsleigh team was prepared and rolled through their normal activation routine and got ready for the water warm-up. It’s great to see that our Senior swimmers are very autonomous and understand the importance of these routines.

As the meet started the results started coming up and Abbotsleigh was able to collect a total of 11 medals (5 gold/3 silver/ 3 Bronze) woohoo!!!

Our medal winners:

Emma Bao – Gold 50 breast & Silver 50 Fs

Audrey Jackson – Gold 50 Fs / Silver 50 Fly & Bronze 50 Bs

Marcus Primdal – Bronze 50 Fs

Shaun Champion- Gold 100 Fly,50Fly,200Fs / Silver 100 Fs

A special mention to Audrey Jackson achieving her Olympic Trials qualifying time for the 50 FS and Jensen Goodchild achieved his National qualifying time for the 200 FS.

We come back with lots of learning, specially with for our younger seniors and their race planning, but overall, it was a great meet for the Abbotsleigh swimming club and once again it Is clear that our foundations have been done well and swimmers are being efficient with their stroke and skills regardless of the meet, they are in. The commitment and belief are there. It is now time to keep on fine tuning in preparation for the 2024 Age national championships and beyond.

Go Abbotsleigh!!

This year’s SMNE Speedo Sprints Heats and 12&U Meet were held on the 11^th Feb down at Sydney Olympic Park. 28 Abbotsleigh swimmers competed in 50m and 100m events. Swimmers had to bring their best racing, executing strong starts and finishes to race to the wall. We had 5 relay teams compete on the day demonstrating Abbotsleigh Team Unity. Swimmers performed great finishes and starts to ensure our changeovers were quick.

Congratulations to April Avery who achieved the 100 Breaststroke national time.

A highlight of the day was watching swimmers rise to the challenge of racing the 100m freestyles and backstrokes after an already long day of racing, with many swimmers having already competed in 5 events. Swimmers did a fantastic job daring greatly and executing their race plans making sure they controlled technique and controlled speed to achieve some very successful swims.

The first four swimmers in each age group in the 50m events have been selected to compete at finals. Congratulations to the following swimmers for being selected to compete at the NSW Speedo Sprint Finals in March:

Louis Csirszka

Lucie Csirszka

Alison Deng

Zoe Durbidge

Talia Lam

Alice Liu

Harriet O’Hara

Many of our Abb swimmers kicked off 2024 with our Abb Camp. On the 22^nd-25^th January, 50 swimmers came together at the Abbotsleigh Aquatic Centre for the 4 day camp. Each day was filled with lots of swimming, dryland, and fun for the swimmers. It was fantastic to see so many swimmers leave with a smile each day.

Each morning commenced with dryland where swimmers practiced controlling their bodies and holding positions that are required to be efficient through the water. Lots of fun was had during dryland with a variety of games and challenges. The exercises were later applied in the pool as swimmers worked on holding good body position in the water.

In the pool, swimmers spent much time developing foundational technique that will help our swimmers long term as they continue to grow and develop. They were also learnt and refined racing skills including dives, turns and finishes that will help them put together stronger races.  On our final day swimmers accumulated what they had learnt, and raced individual events and relays. The opportunity to race and reflect on it allowed for swimmers to think about the technique and skills they put into the race.

Special thanks to Abbotsleigh swimmer Shaun Champion who shared on his experiences and lessons learnt at World Championships and brought in medals won at the 2022 World Championships in Melbourne. Also special thanks to Commonwealth Games swimmer, Meg Bailey for working with us for two of the days. Meg provided insights into what is required to be a high level of swimmer, focusing on the fundamentals of technique.

Bring on a great 2024!

NSW senior state age was an amazing way to finish the year of 2023. We had 17 swimmers competing at these championships where 3 of them were participating at this level for their first time.

This 6 day event provide swimmers (and parents and coaches) with the experience of heats and finals for each race in preparation for the 2024 National championships in the Gold Coast.

It was important for all swimmers to be focused on their process and be able to do and execute their plans under the shiny lights of Sydney Olympic Park and race against the best senior swimmers in the state. Our sense of community was visible on deck as our experienced swimmers and less experienced swimmers encouraging each other and taking an interest on how each Team Abb member performed.

We had  amazing performances all throughout  the meet.

Congratulations to our Medal Winners:

Shaun Champion – Silver 100 butterfly & 50 butterfly

Congratulations to our finalists

Audrey Jackson – 9^th in 50 Freestyle

Tina Chen – 10^th in 100 Breaststroke & 8^th in 200 Breaststroke

We also want to highlight the performance of our relay teams and thank you all the athletes that got selected and were able to join us in these exciting races and achieving these awesome results.

Girls 15-17 4×50 Freestyle relay – 10^th

Girls 12&O 10×50 Freestyle relay – 18^th

Girls 12-14 4×50 Medley relay – 20^th

After 6 days of racing there was still smiles in everyone’s faces and also lots of learning, it was a great meet and we cannot wait for next year. The girl also had the opportunity to have a quick chat with one of our Australian Dolphins Bronte Campbell

GO ABBOTSLEIGH!!

On the first day of summer the Abbotsleigh swim club had their annual Christmas party. All the swimmers got together and participated on the 2023 Christmas race league. The message to both teams was as usual Dare greatly and bring the best of their intent in any of the races. Some swimmers were put outside of their comfort zone swimming events that they normal do not swim.

It was great to see everyone’s energy and commitment to their own teams. As usual we had two teams: ORCAS & LIONS.

Orcas brought their best intent and were leading through the night, but on the last race – all team relay – Lions really dig deep within themselves and took the win and in this way, they were also able to gather enough points to get the overall win. UNITY & FUN was seen all over the night and coaches could not be happier. Seeing their athletes upholding the club Values, enjoying swimming and cheer for their teammates is amazing.

Recently, on the 25^th & 26^th November, 12 of our Team Abb swimmers competed at the NSW Junior Metropolitan Championships at SOPAC. This was the first Metro level meet for many of our swimmers.

Swimmers had worked hard to qualify for this meet and had the opportunity to execute what they had been working on. Swimmers came prepared for their races and carried out their warm ups and race prep with a high level of detail. Race plans were carried out and it was fantastic to see our swimmers race to the wall, executing their racing finishes well. Demonstrating our KAIZEN value, our swimmers came home with lessons and future areas of improvement ready to be implemented back at training as we work to continuously improving.

Team Abbotsleigh UNITY was seen across the weekend. It was fantastic to see swimmers supporting each other in their races with lots of cheering coming from the side of the pool. Swimmers also worked together through warmups and shared lunch breaks together as a team.

Congratulations to our Top 10 Finishes

Zoe Durbidge – 10th 11yrs girls 100 BR

Penelope Waterhouse – 5th 10yrs girls 50 BK 

Louis Csirszka – 2nd 11yrs boys 50 Fly, 7th 11yrs boys 100 FR, 4th 11yrs boys 50 FR, 3rd 11yrs boys 50 BK 

KAIZEN

DARE GREATLY

UNITY

FUN

SMNE Championships 2023 LC

On 4^th and 5^th of November the Abbotsleigh swim club team went to Sydney Olympic Park to race at SMNE. This is a competition with all the best in the Metro northeast area.

The Abbotsleigh swimming club had a team of 45 swimmers with a total of 180 individual entries and 20 relay teams. It was a meet full of fun moments and with a lot of good energy. The swimmers showed the ability to embrace the meet and focus when needed.

Some of the swimmers were for their very first-time racing in a meet like this and it was great to see their attention to every detail within the competition. These newcomers were also organised and keep themselves onto their routines, making the meet go smoothly and everyone knew when to be ready to Race.

 The team support that was felt throughout the meet was great and once again TEAM Abbotsleigh showed their spirit in staying together and supporting each teammate.

The Abbotsleigh swimming Club had a total of

1. 19 Top 5
2. 72 Top 10

A congratulation to all our Medalist:

Alice Liu – 3^rd 11yrs 100 BR, 3^rd 11yrs 50 BR

Grace Black – 3^rd 14yrs 50 BK

Tina Chen – 1^st 13yrs 100 BR, 1^st 13yrs 200 BR, 1^st 13yrs 50 BR

Penelope Waterhouse – 2^nd 10yrs 50 FR, 3^rd 10yrs 100 BK, 3^rd 10yrs 50 B

Louis Csirszka – 2^nd 10yrs 50 FR, 1^st 10yrs 50 FLY, 2^nd 10yrs 100 FR

Cameron Green – 3^rd 11yrs 100 FR

Joel Pagano – 2^nd 11yrs 100 BR, 2^nd 11yrs 50 FR, 3^rd 11yrs 50 FLY

Marcus Primdal – 3^rd 14yrs 50 BK

Shaun Champion – 1^st 15&O 100 FLY, 1^st 15&O 100 FR

We would like to give a special mention to all the swimmers that participate on the team relays, it was great to see their amazing team effort into representing our club in the best way they could. Relays are a very important part of swimming; they define the bond between teammates and our club values. – Kaizen, Dare greatly, Unity, Fun.

TOP 10 RELAYS

14&O Girls Medley Relay – 4^th – Grace Black, Claudia Liu, Jasmin Foster, Audrey Jackson

14&O Girls Free Relay – 5^th – Syesha Anthony, Piper Marinas, Audrey Jackson, Jasmin

14&O Boys Medley Relay – 8^th – Oliver Liu, Jensen Goodchild, Zac Attard, Marcus Primdal

14&O Boys Free Relay – 4^th – Zac Attard, Shaun Champion, Marcus Primdal, Jensen Goodchild

13&U Girls Medley Relay – 7^th – Alicia Chung, Tina Chen, April Avery, Tilly Mamo

13&U Girls Free Relay – 7^th – Tina Chen, April Avery, Tilly Mamo, Emily Lin

Go team ABB.

On Monday 23^rd October, we had our first Abbotsleigh Club Night for Term 4. It was a great opportunity for swimmers to gain some race practice with a number of our young swimmers gaining SMNE qualifying times. We also had the chance to welcome our new members who have joined the club over the last few months. They were presented with their Abbotsleigh caps and we look forward to them being a part of Team Abb!

Thank you to all the parents for timekeeping and helping us run the nights. We wouldn’t be able to run these events without parent support.

On the 14^th & 15^th of October the Abbotsleigh gold and black squads went to Sydney Olympic park to participate on the 2023 NSW LC qualifying meet. This was a targeted meet for these group as part of their planning and preparation for later December comps.

 The intent was to apply the race skills and efficient race plans that they had been working on at training and be able to execute them under a slightly more competitive environment. The meet was a success with a lot of State times achieved as well as National times. Everyone applied themselves and worked within the best of their abilities.

It is amazing to see these athletes challenging themselves and understanding that planning and preparation is key for success.

Bring on Junior Metros and State championships.

On Saturday 7^th October, our Abbotsleigh team came together to race at the Lane Cove Invitational LC Meet. This was our first Long Course (LC) meet of the season and was a great chance to bring 30 swimmers from White, Black & Gold squads altogether. Arriving at 7:45am, we could complete our Flow activation and warmup as a team.

Throughout the day, our swimmers did an excellent job adapting to an outdoor 50m pool. Swimmers applied the technique and skills they had been working on into their races. We saw some great underwaters, breakouts, and speed building through to the finish.

It was fantastic to see the unity of our team as our swimmers cheered each other on from pool side. Swimmers took on feedback and thought on areas for future improvement as we move into the Summer season.

Thank you to the parents and grandparents for bringing swimmers to Lane Cove and assisting with timekeeping when required.

What a great start to a promising summer season ahead!

KAIZEN

DARE GREATLY
UNITY
FUN