This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 26th, 2013at 3:31 pm by Active Nation

Club Of The Year

Wow! 2012 was a truly incredible year for the Active Nation Southampton Diving Club. Both the Divers and the coaches had some inspiring performances that led them all the way to the Olympics.

But before 2012 seems like a memory, and the club gets set to deliver another incredible year, the sports community came out to attend this years Sport Hants and IOW Awards to recongise those that had made 2012 something special.

The awards ceremony was a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the regions local heroes. So it was a huge honour that the Active Nation Diving Programme was recognised as the Top Club in the ‘Sport Hants & IOW’ awards ceremony.

Plus, there was even more cause for celebration as Chris Mears was awarded the Senior Sportsman honours, and Lyndsey Fraser (head coach) and Frank Clewlow (recorder) both received nominations.

We might need a bigger trophy cabinet!

Here are a few of the highlights which helped the club receive the award:

In January 2012 Max Brick became British 10m Champion for the 1^st time and Stacie Powell took the womens 10m title, with a new British record.

February saw the World Cup, where Peter Waterfield took an amazing bronze medal in the individual 10m event, with a superb final dive, to raise the roof at the London Aquatic centre.

During March, April and May the divers attended the World series, in China, Dubai, Russia and Mexico, where Peter took both individual and synchro medals and he and Tom became the synchronised 10m champions of the World Series 2012. Whilst Chris Mears, and his partner Nick Robinson-Baker were brilliant in the Mexico leg, and took a well deserved silver medal.

June saw the summer National events where Stacie dived even better than in January and took the womens 10m title with another new British record. Chris and Nick took the 3m synchro title, and Peter and Tom took the mens 10m synchro title.

The Juniors were also performing well and Southampton saw two new International divers in Mollie James and Sarah White. Sarah also went on to represent GBR in the Junior European Championships, finishing a very respectable 6^th place in the 14/15 girls platform event.

And then of course the highlight of the year…London 2012, where Southampton had 3 competitors – Peter, Stacie and Chris representing Team GB. The outstanding performance came from Chris Mears who became the first Briton to score over 100 points on a 3m spring board on his final dive in the final, a forward 4.5 somersault  to end the event in style!