This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2014at 2:29 pm by zoe.leahy@activenation.org.uk

SDA Divers Win Team Trophy At Gavin Brown Love To Dive Competition

Southampton Diving Academy recently hosted its annual Gavin Brown Love to Dive competition which commemorates its talented diver and coach, Gavin Brown, who was tragically killed by a hit-and-run driver in 2007. 

Gavin was a talented 22-year-old man and a big character on the diving circuit.  SDA coaches involved in this competition were inspired by Gavin when they were themselves competitive divers and are now following in his footsteps and inspiring youngsters as coaches themselves.

The competition attracted clubs from all over the South of England and the 56 strong Southampton Diving Academy team won the team trophy showing their strengths in all age groups, the boys especially dominating the proceedings and winning their team event by a substantial 27 points.

Southampton’s  Gold medal came from Jake Batchelor in the boys 14/18 years springboard event, Jake impressed the judges scoring many 7.5’s and performed an outstanding inward dive Tuck from the 3m board.  In this age category for the girls Abigail Wales also impressed scoring many 7.5’s and maintaining her top 3 position throughout the competition, finally finishing with a Bronze medal.

SDA dominated in the 8/9 years springboard event with Collette Guyett-Smith winning the Silver for the girls and for the boys Bryn James won Silver and Jake Chandler took the Bronze. Bryn and Jake matching each other dive for dive, scoring many 8’s and 9’s out of 10. Eventually Bryn’s excellent execution of his 3m dives just edged out team mate Jake.

The Girls 12/13 Years saw Chloe Harrington win SDA another Bronze, again, with some impressive scores of 8 and 8.5’s.

For most of these divers it was their first competition and to achieve medals in most age groups was a credit to their hard work and commitment.

Full Results:

Girls 8/9 Springboard

2^nd  Collette Guyett-Smith, 4^th  Evie Brighton, 8^th  Dulcie Wilson, 12^th  Daisy Yeats, 13^th  Leila Coupal, 17^th  Meadow Way

Girls 10/11 Springboard

4^th  Grace Hill, 5^th  Amy Leneve, 6^th  Milly Batten, 7^th  Sofia Sathio, 14^th  Olivia Perera, 15^th  Maya Kutty, 17^th  Olive Ullyatt, 18^th Poppy Chandler, 19^th  Niamh Savage, 20^th  Holly Hopgood, 21^st  Ciara-Lily Sturrock, 23^rd  Mutyat Anibaba, 4^th  Amelia Newman

Girls 12/13 Springboard

3^rd  Chloe Harrington, 5^th  Liberty West, 6^th  Ella Anderson, 7^th  Lucie Hill, 8^th  Kelsey Mills, 9^th  Chloe Davis

Girls 14/18 Springboard

3^rd  Abigail Wales, 5^th  Ellen Cull, 7^th  Suzanna Burt, 8^th  Paige Burt, 9^th  Honor Appleby-Mell

Boys 8/9 Springboard

2^nd  Bryn James, 3^rd  Jake Chandler, 4^th  Robbie Lee, 5^th  Milo French, 6^th  Leon Baker, 7^th  Jamie Akerman, 8^th  Thomas Gilson

Boys 10/11 Springboard

6^th  Ashley Burnard, 8^th  Thomas Crew, 10^th  James Madden,  13^th  Aidan McMullan,14^th  Nathan Bull,15^th  Andre Dance, 16^th  Callum Spiers, 17^th  Hamish Lindsay,21^st  Finley Hughes, 22^nd  Sam Jones, 24^th  Thomas MacFadyen 25^th  Oakley Clarke, 26^th  Tyler Rose, 27^th  Joshua Bascombe, 28^th  Jack Hinton, 29^th  William Newman.

Boys 12/13 Springboard

7^th Thomas Kelly, 8^th Alfie Dudson, 11^th  Alexander Griffiths,  12^th  Peter Sutherland.

Boys 14/18 Springboard

1^st  Jacob Batchelor