Author: Jay Loureiro

Shaun Champion and Holly Nelson welcomed the competition at the Open category of the Australian Championships. This was the first major event in the lead up to the Olympic Trials in June.

Shaun and Holly brought their racing mindset and intent to each race. Each week in their preparation they show a dedication to their craft (swimming, technique, skills). It is this consistent discipline and attitude to being their best that prepared them to be present and race in the moment.

Huge congratulations to Shaun who is our Australian Champion. Shaun won the 50m Butterfly in a thrilling race on the final day of the program. Shaun is Abbotsleigh’s first Australian Champion. Woohoo!

Shaun had success in the 100 Butterfly too where he won silver, in a time of 52.17, a personal best. Shaun showed his skills in freestyle too, placing in his Age finals.

Holly had a breakout meet, delivering season best performances in all her races. Holly placed 4th in her age group in 50 and 100 free. This was reflection of her resilience, self belief and patience. Well done Holly!

As you can see swimming, sport, competition offers us so much as humans. Whether you achieve your goals or you learn something about yourself, it is the courage to dare and have a go that makes a great person, not just a great swimmer.

Congratulation Team Abb!!!

Everyone should take a deep breath, smile and celebrate being part of something special.

Whether it is your favourite past time or a challenge we certainly had fun deciding which entry was our best bunny.

Thank you to all that participated. Each time you get the opportunity to contribute to an event please delight in it. We are always going to be better when have representation across our community. We love to see your idea of choosing your colours and patterns. As you can see in the photo, the outcome was a visual joy for our eyes and each picture made us feel a sense of happiness. After deciding a winner based on technique, detail and how it made us feel…

Congratulations Ria Kim!

Ria collected her $35 Aqua Shop voucher and we have a participation prize for those who dared greatly 🙂

Three “first timers”represented our club on the Gold Coast during the April school holidays.

The event was long awaited for Jemma Chamberlain, as she has been a qualifier for 3 years. Jemma took her opportunity and swam her season best swims in the 100m and 200m breaststroke. A great effort to do amongst the best in the country. Well done Jemma.

Jensen Goodchild maximized his experience at the meet by qualifying for 5 events spread through the 6 day meet. Jensen learnt something in each race he did and it was good to see him immerse himself in the event.

Jasmin Foster rocketed her way to Age Nationals. As a first timer at State Championships in December and first time finalist at this level, Jazzy’s next stop was Australian Age. Jazzy’s love for swimming shone bright all season as she went from achievement to achievement and it was fitting that she would take this passion to compete against the best in Australia.

Jemma, Jensen and Jazzy bring their experience back to Abbotsleigh and will share this energy and motivation with their Clubmates. They also shared a hug with their parents after each race, to say thank you and grateful for the chance to be there. Thank you swimmers and parents, it is a team effort.

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On the 17^th of April, the Abbotsleigh swimming club joined the Knox Pymble swimming club on their invitational meet, this meet was quite important as some of the swimmers were having their debut in the world of racing. FUN was the word of the day and being able to have a great first experience was the most important part of this meet. The coaches could not be happier seeing the new juniors getting on the blocks ready to go, being brave and accepting the challenge of standing on the blocks and bring their best. Lots of smiles and great performances trough the morning and we all came back home with a positive attitude and understanding of where we are in the season. It was also great to see the more experienced swimmers being mindful and supporting and guiding the newcomers, showing in this way their amazing team spirit.

Go Team ABB!!

On the 27^th and 28^th March, our Junior team and raced at Junior State championships. The weekend was full of good energy and team spirit. Our athletes raised the standard when racing against the best of the state they showed what Team ABB is made of. Our values Kaizen, Dare Greatly, Unity and Fun were present and the smiles in everyone’s face was noticeable.

When it was time to race each swimmer focused on their race specifics and brought their best performance. The Abbotsleigh coaches could not be happier of how Junior State went, not only in the results point of view but also on the growth that the athletes are showing race after race. This growth is part of our Abbotsleigh values (kaizen – Continues improvement) and we love to see our athletes being able to be themselves and progress meet after meet in a safe and inclusive team environment.  

We would like to say thank you to all parents that were able to represent the team and bring the swimmers for the 10×50 girls relay. It was an exciting moment, and it would not have been possible if it were not for all of you working together to get everyone there.

Our boys Medley relay was also an amazing moment where they boys came close to that medal place, finishing an awesome 4^th place with the best fighting attitude throughout the race.

Below you can have a look at some of the awesome photos of the day and our Top ten results, a special mention to Leisel Tan and Marcus Primdal that were able to achieve their first Junior State Championship Medal.

The Abbotsleigh swimming Club had a total of

1. 1 Silver  
2. 1 Bronze
3. A total of 8 top ten finishes

Our relays:

Girls 10-11 4×50 Fs relay – Seed 34 – finishing place 24^th

Girls 10-11 4×50 Medley relay – Seed 26 – finishing place 21^st

Girls 12 4×50 Fs relay – seed 19 – finishing 21^st

Girls 12 4×50 Medley relay – seed 19 – finishing place 18^th

Girls 10×50 Fs relay – finishing place 14^th

Boys 4×50 Medley relay – Seed 5^th – finishing place 4^th

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Jemma Chamberlain, Shaun Champion, Jasmin Foster, Holly Nelson and Emily Washer engaged in the Olympic racing format. This format of afternoon heat sessions and morning finals, will be used in the 2020/1 Olympics. Because of this, there are a number of competition that will follow this process. So by design the meet had a different feel. Our swimmers enjoyed mixing their best along side the majority of high performing Open swimmers across the country. All swimmers predominantly use this meet to check in on things they are working on under racing conditions. Managing energies to perform in heats at 8pm at night and waking up and getting our body and brain ready to perform in morning finals was a different challenge too.

Overall we take learning back to our training pool as we prepare for National Championships in April.

Well done to Shaun and Holly who competed in finals with Shaun securing 2 medals, Silver in 100 Butterfly and Bronze in the 50 Butterfly.

Well done also to Jemma and Jasmin competing in their first Open meet.

Great effort!

After training on Monday we took the opportunity to welcome the new Abbotsleigh members. We also recognised our Junior State athletes and our National Age and Open athletes that will be representing our club against the best in the State and the best in Australia. It was a great end of the day and all swimmers were happy to cheer for their new members and acknowledge the hard work that the State and National level swimmers put in to achieve their goals through their dedication to their training.

Once again, the Abbotsleigh team show their amazing values and commitment by being present and supporting every swimmer in the club. A culture that we love and we will keep on reinforcing. A club where everyone feels safe and happy to take part in.

Abbotsleigh new-Members

Abbotsleigh State rep swimmers

Abbotsleigh National swimmers

On Saturday the 6^th of March, a team of 6 Abbotsleigh swimmers was selected to represent the Metro north east area at the speedo sprints finals. This is a meet where the fastest swimmers in the state get together and race against each other representing their areas . In between swimming carnivals and big weeks of work these athletes prove themselves once again and came back home with amazing results.  Claudia Liu, Freddie O’Hara, Marcus Primdal, Leisel Tan and Lara Valmadre, and a special mention to Grace Black for stepping in for the very first in a meet like this.

We had a total of 8 Top 10 placings, including 6 Top 4 placings:

Claudia Liu – 50 Breast – 4^th Place

Freddie O’Hara – 50 Breast – 2^nd Place

Marcus Primdal- 50 Bk – 2^nd Place  

Leisel Tan – 50 Fs -2^nd Place

Lara Valmadre – 50 Fs and 50 Fly – 4^th Place

Congratulations swimmers, you performed exceptionally throughout the Finals event.

Well done to everyone and parents thank you again for bringing them and spend another Saturday supporting us.

Shaun has taken part in Swimming Australia’s National Event Camp, held on the Gold Coast last week.

The idea of these camps to bring Australia’s best swimmers together, providing a great training environment.

Swimmers train in stroke groups, working on technique and skills specific to their main stroke. In Shaun’s case, butterfly.

The camp included a Relay Blitz. Every stroke group came together and were thrown into a relay racing situation with limited preparation.

Being “Race Ready” is a useful mindset when competing. All swimmers had something to learn from the experience.

Shaun enjoyed the week, having lots of fun and has arrived back with Team ABB tanned, focused and happy.

Awesome effort Shaun!