Author: Jay Loureiro

Congratulations Team Abb!

We welcome coach Callum as our new team member with a wonderful display of racing throughout the weekend. Our swimmers have been focusing on holding their technique and challenging themselves at a variety of races, including longer events and branching out to different stroke and especially the 200IM.All your coaches loved what you brought to each race.

There were many highlights, the standout was how you supported each other. It was great to see you learning from each other and from each race. We love relays and for the first time we were able to enter A, B, C and D relays for girls 8-13 years and we had relays in each age bracket. The energy on both days for these relays was fantastic. 

Six relay teams finished inside the top 10…

It is worth mentioning that 9 swimmers placed 4th too…what a great result for Team ABB!

It is worth mentioning that 9 swimmers placed 4th too…what a great result for Team ABB!

Thank you to parents who had official roles at the meet and to all families for contributing to making the weekend a fun experience. Thank you to our coaches, Jay, showing is belief in each swimmer and for Callum, to take in all that is Team Abb! Great energy all round

The Abbotsleigh team flew to the Gold coast to participate in the 2023 Age national championships, everyone was excited and ready to go. The Sun was shining and it was time for our swimmers show what they are capable of.

Knowing that this is an intense meet in terms of competition our swimmers applied what they know and have learned during the season. They DARED GREATLY in their races and were positive and determined towards their racing intent. They were UNITED in their commitment to being positive and determined and worked together pre competition and during the meet.

All of our values shined through in our relays, whether they were supporting them or taking part and absolutely backing themselves and their teammates…we could see them having FUN and it is why our relay focus is/was important.

Everyone delivered personal best efforts! There were season bests, relay split best, lifetime bests…we had it all. We also had a representative in a B final. Congratulations Claudia Liu for her performance in 50m breaststroke. Outstanding stuff!

We could not be happier with these swimmers’ performance and attitude towards their swimming and the sport. Looking forward to what comes next.

Thank you also to all parents, without your support and commitment this would not be possible. The word TEAM includes each and every one of you and we appreciate your support towards us and our club.

Go Abbotsleigh !!

Congratulations to our Junior State Team…we had 25 swimmers take part in the two day event.

With our relay focus…we had outstanding performances from everyone…including:

Individually we had multiple swimmers win their heat in great style.

We had 19 personal best long course swims.

Alice Liu placed in the Top 10 for 50m breaststroke. Congratulations Alice!

Our swimmers endured throughout the weekend finishing super fast in the 10×50 relays. We will continue to build on this experience.

It was great to see our swimmers give their best for Team ABB!

Thank you to our parents for supporting your swimmers and giving them a chance to stretch themselves for their wins!

On the 20th of March we presented our Junior State team, this group of 25 swimmers will be going to SOPAC on the 25th and 26th of March to race at the NSW Junior State Championships. The team is ready to go and as they go through their fine tuning in the last week, the message has been consistent, and it will be about competing with intent, uphold our club values and have an amazing time.

They are ready and we cannot wait to see this group of amazing people showing their fire and what they are capable of.

Let’s go team ABB !

Congratulations to Shaun Champion and Holly Nelson for representing Team ABB at Trials in Adelaide. Holly brought her racing intent and energy to the meet, completing in for 50 Butterfly and 50 Freestyle finals. In both races she improved her heat swim time and finished 4^th on 50 Butterfly in 27.68 and 5^th in the 50 Freestyle in 25.94. You can imagine at this level your skills and race execution is paramount and Holly exhibited this in all her swims. It was great to see her dare greatly.

Shaun’s positive mindset shone through at the meet, dealing with a stomach virus in the lead up to the event and being able to stay present and step by step approach each challenge. No doubt Shaun was disappointed he wasn’t able to show up at the meet feeling 100% yet he never shyed away from bringing his best performance. Shaun placed 7^th in the 100 Butterfly, in 52.67,which was a remarkable feat and a credit to his inner strength, his resilience and discipline to stay present and be race ready regardless of his situation.

Shaun’s performance gained his selection on the Australia A team to compete in the USA in July. Amanda was also selected as part of the coaching Team. Congratulations to our Team ABB swimmers and Head Coach Amanda.

On the 19th of May, Abbotsleigh swimming club organized a Race League for our swimmers. The purpose was to have a fun moment of racing where we had two teams with a mix of white squad, black squad and gold squad swimmers across the 2 teams. Everyone had a great time and we could see the companionships and team spirit that runs across all our levels of squads. This is something both teams were excited and looking forward and this was the event that opened up our short course season.

It is great to see all our swimmers getting together and no matter what there see each other has equals having fun and upholding great values.

On the 10th of May 2022, it was the conclusion of our Annual easter bunny coloring competition where swimmers had the opportunity to explore their coloring talents.

Off course that once again the team did not disappoint and amazing works of art where in display. This made the decision for a winner very hard to do however Emily Lin was our coloring competition winner, not only she did amazing coloring but she also went the extra mile and took time to make something different with her work.

This Bunny competition is a great activity that allows our swimmers to explore their imagination and creativity. It is great to see that everyone is comfortable in exploring their other talents besides swimming.

Age Nationals in Adelaide welcomed our Abbotsleigh team on the 11^th of April to the 19^th of April.

Audrey Jackson, Claudia Liu and Leisel Tan were for the first time swimming at a National competition, they were ready, committed and looking forward to fly down to Adelaide and represent our colours in the best way possible.

Jasmin Foster and Jensen Goodchild having their second national experience showed their composure and were able to not only perform in their events but also use their experience to guide and share their knowledge with our newcomers.

Jensen Goodchild open up the meet for the Abbotsleigh team with the 200IM event, where amongst 67 swimmers he placed 28^th with a great PB. A couple of days later It was Jazzy’s and Leisel’s turn to shine in the 50Fs, both of the girls showed resilience and fire when they got on the blocks and both of them open their National campaign with an amazing swim. Unfortunately Audrey Jackson could not fly to the meet due to Covid-19 restrictions but she is looking forward for next year.

After all the freestyle it was time for Leisel Tan to get herself into backstroke mode and bring and challenge herself across an amazing level of swimmers. Leisel applied herself and had the opportunity to make her first National final. Upholding our values, Leisel was prepared to swim her heat in the morning and back it up to swim the final at night getting an amazing result of 7^th overall. Towards the end of the meet Claudia Liu joined the team for her 50Bs, where she jumped on the blocks committed to do well and believing in her stroke and with a PB she was able to get an amazing 28^th place out 42 swimmers.

This was a great experience for everyone and all swimmers and coaches got a range of knowledge and learnings that they will not only apply at training but will also have the opportunity to share it with their teammates.

March 26 and 27 where the dates chosen for the Junior state age, our athletes suited up and got once again ready to race against the best juniors in the State of NSW.

We had 9 of our swimmers representing the black and gold colours and together as a team they brough the best of their abilities. It was a great performance from everyone, and the coaches could not be happier with the resilience shown. 

A special mention to Joel Pagano, Alicia Chug and Izabella Zhao on their first state attendance.

Pymble ladies’ college was the place chosen for the KPSC invitational meet. On the 27^th of February our 13 and under swimmers got together with their best energy and drove off to an amazing meet with the right mindset.

All swimmers were ready to race with race skills and fire under their skin to race and show what they have got.

The score board was not the only outcome, and the swimmers were prepared to get feedback and be aware of what they did well and where they can get better. It is great to see our value Kaizen – continuous improvement where the athletes understand that it is about knowing and discover where and how they can improve themselves.