Success in the pool for Avondale College swimmers Gabrielle Fa'amausili and Caitlin Mann

When she was young Avondale College’s Gabrielle Fa'amausili nearly drowned while taking swimming lessons.

“When I was three I had a drowning accident during my early swimming lessons and my mum had to pull me out of the water, and I hated swimming so much that I never wanted to go back.

“But they covered up my pool in primary school and my mum made me go back and do it, saying to me that I must learn how to swim so that it won’t happen again. So I started getter better and the friendships I made kept me involved and helped me progress to where I’m at now.” 

Ten years later she became a junior world champion backstroker and a junior world record holder.

Lately, Avondale College swimmers Gabrielle Fa'amausili (Year 11) and Caitlin Mann (Year 13) have been spending just as much time in the water than in the classroom.

Earlier this month, the pair performed with distinction at the New Zealand Open Swimming Championships, while next week they both head to Wellington with their Roskill Swimming Club teammates to compete in the 2015 New Zealand Age Group Swimming Championships.

Then there’s the hours of preparation that goes into being nationally and world ranked swimmers, and it’s a lot of hard work and dedication involved.

“I train twice a day,“ said Caitlin, who is also a prefect at Avondale College. “Five days a week and then once on Saturday.”

Year 13 student Caitlin’s an all-rounder in the pool. “My preferred event is the 200m Individual Medley, which is all the strokes combined. It’s 50m butterfly, 50m backstroke, 50m breaststroke and 50 freestyle.”

She recently finished fifth overall in the Women’s 200 IM at the New Zealand Open Championships, swimming a personal best time, while she won the 50m breaststroke B final, the event she started off in.

That wasn’t all she competed in. “The events I entered were the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke events, 200 IM, 400 IM, 200m butterfly and 200m backstroke – that’s seven races.”

In February, Caitlin and Avondale College’s NZ U18 road race running champion Luke Fielding teamed up to win the Auckland Secondary School's Aquathon race. For Caitlin, this involved a 750m ocean swim, before Luke powered away for victory on the 6km run. 

“That was an event I really enjoyed,” said Caitlin, “I have never done ocean swimming before, only competitive swimming in the pool and it’s something I’d love to do again.”

Caitlin said that she started competitive swimming when she was 11. Before that she was playing water polo, but last year she quit that to focus solely on swimming.

Caitlin is the daughter of former prominent Kiwis and Tongan rugby league international Dwayne Mann, in part where she gets her talent and hard working ethic from.

Year 11 student Gabrielle’s father is former Samoan rugby international Danny Kaleopa, but she’s already established herself in her own right as one of New Zealand’s brightest young sporting stars.

In 2013, Gabrielle broke the world junior record for her favoured event, the 50m backstroke, at the World Junior Swimming Championships. She then won the Emerging Talent award at the Halberg Awards.

Last year she was New Zealand’s flag bearer at the World Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China. The then 14-year old won bronze for NZ in the U18 50m backstroke final.

At the recent New Zealand open swimming meet, Gabrielle won gold and silver in the Women’s 50m backstroke and freestyle events respectively – setting new national age group records in the process.

Gabrielle’s specialist events are the ‘sprints’. The world record for the women’s 50m backstroke is 27.06 seconds and the 50m freestyle equivalent is 23.73.

Gabrielle loves the nature of her races.

 “It’s about fun. I have always found long distance swimming and running kind of boring, but it’s all about having fun!”

“If I think too much then I won’t be able to do it. It’s more intense than longer races and more exiting for me.”

Gabrielle said that she was 10 when she decided she wanted to be a world beating swimmer.  “The thing I treasure most about what I have achieved so far is getting my first Auckland record – achieving that a few years ago was what inspired me to focus on swimming.”

Gabrielle explained the two swimmers’ goals this year: “Caitlin and I want to qualify for the Commonwealth Youth Games later this year, also the Junior Worlds in Singapore this year.”

Both swimmers aren’t far off their marks, Caitlin said that she needs to shave about two seconds off her PB in Wellington next week to qualify for the Commonwealth Youth Games 200m IM.

The Commonwealth Youth Games are in Samoa in September, the country of Gabrielle’s heritage. “I have never been there before, so I really want to qualify to get to go to Samoa.”

After that, Caitlin has her sights set on a scholarship. ““I want to try and get a swimming scholarship in America. Either that or stay here and study radiography.”

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