Girls and Boys swimming on Sydney's Upper North Shore
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Abbotsleigh Swim Club President, Chris Fydler, was in Gallipoli recently to join a commemorative swim in Anzac Cove. Chris, former Australian swim team captain and sprint king, swam the 1,915m event organised by the Turkish Olympic Committee (TOC) to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli. Full story here.
After years of visiting SOPAC, Abbotsleigh parent Ben Ramsden finally made it to the podium. Distinctly average swimmer Ben explained, “I have been training hard for years, and never dreamt that one day I would make it to the podium at Sydney Olympic Park. My kids have both been there many times, but I thought that the opportunity was just going to pass me by”.
Ben didn’t seem a bit disappointed that his appearance at the podium was to present medals rather than receive one. “My daughter presented the gold medal to the women’s 100m freestyle World Champion at Sopac earlier this year. Now I have presented to the 10year old Metro Champions. Everyone needs to start somewhere.”
Copies reproduced courtesy of News Local.
I’d like to congratulate Brandon Lawrence on receiving his Silver Coaching Licence.
To receive this Brandon had to have 6 or more swimmers achieve Australian national Age Qualifying times, attend a 5 day course held at the Australia Swimming Coaches Conference and complete work books to prove he was capable and knowledgeable in the areas of; technique and skills in swimming, progression, season planning, race planning, talent ID systems, race footage analysis, nutrition and hydration for swimmers, core/dryland programming and injury prevention.
Brandon is now part of an elite group of coaches in Australia and we are very lucky to have him on our team.
Leanne Speechley
Congratulations to our Abbotsleigh swim Club swimmers who earnt themselves a place on the prestigious NSW selection squads. This is a fine reward for all your great training and racing at both State and Nationals in 2015. You have all made us very proud here at Abbotsleigh.
Natasha Ramsden
Katie Strachan
Rebecca St Vincent
Annabelle Druce
Kaea Bidois
Charles Marais
Georgia O’Connor
Annika Tonuri
The little green man from Mars hid himself behind his total invisibility vortex. Unseen and unheard he observed the scene unfolding in front of him.
The guards lined up the prisoners, then instructed them to crouch on small tables at one end of a small indoor lake. The chief officer made a strange one armed salute to a side kick who sounded a beep. Upon this signal the prisoners hurled themselves into the chemically polluted water and started to labour along a long black line by moving their arms and legs.
Those who had committed the worst crimes were forced to make 30 laps of the lake before some other guards pressed buttons allowing them to stop. The less evil ones were released after only 8. Wave after wave of punishment was unleashed on the prisoners – some even came back for more. None of the prisoners were allowed to eat but the guards had ample supplies delivered to them on plates.
Mooseglurg had seen enough. In a puff of invisible smoke he engaged his hyperspace drive and zipped home to Mars.
The ‘Agora’ was the meeting ground for citizens in Ancient Greece. In modern day equivalent for Abbotsleigh Swimming Club is the ‘seating’ overlooking the pool.
Today it was the ‘seating’ overlooking Knox pool. And there the good citizens of Abbotsleigh set about their ancient rituals of warm up, marshall, race, debrief, swim down, eat, gossip, play with the iPad, nearly miss out on their next event, etc, etc. All this under the watchful eyes of their elder bag carriers, caterers and financiers.
Whilst the juniors swam, the seniors chatted. Carneades has a new kitten and Nichomedes is expecting a baby. Myia’s daughter has lost her cossie and cap (but not to worry they didn’t fit anyway so a visit to the clothier is due). Phidias has a new job, Nicomedes is baking lamb for dinner, and Isaeus has found a quiet spot to operate his electronic abacus.
And Maximus God of All Swimming was smiling. PBs were swum. State times were achieved. DQs were ignored. Sausages were sizzled. Nobody spent $15 on car parking. All thanks to the almighty Titans of Knox Pymble. Let’s do it all again same time, same place next week at the SMNE Distance Meet!
Congratulations team Abbotsleigh! Full report here.
Leanne and Brandon delivered a pre-competition briefing that rivalled John’s talk for impact. A memory jogger of the key themes filled inboxes later in the day. Inspirational quotes were then carefully written on to the beautifully illustrated canvas produced by unofficial team artist Tash.
Such is the size of our squad this year that we have outgrown the Abbotsleigh bus for the pre-trip to sopac to feel the water and collect accreditation passes.
Go Abbotsleigh! Photos will be posted here as they are received.
