This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014at 1:03 pm by zoe.leahy@activenation.org.uk

Young Divers Compete In The Peter Waterfield Novices Competition

Divers from across the south of England descended upon Southampton to compete in the Peter Waterfield Novices Competition. Hosts, Southampton Diving Academy, proved that there is plenty of Southampton talent coming through by taking 18 top six places and winning 2 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals.

This event, held annually at Active Nation’s The Quays diving complex, is known as ‘Skills’ level and sees the divers aged 13 and under performing a set of 12 skills from three stations, poolside, 1m and 3m springboard, whilst divers aged 14 and above perform 10 dives from the 1m and 3m springboard. Some of these divers are just setting out on their competitive careers and this is a chance to compete against other clubs and set their benchmark whilst others aspire to move onto the next competitive level.

Nine year old Dulcie Wilson, diving in the girls 8/9 years, demonstrated her potential to be a diving starlet of the future. Achieving scores of 8 and 8.5’s Dulcie accumulated a total of 310.35 points, and with the highest overall score of the whole competition won her event by over 14 points.

The SDA Boys dominated the 12/13 Years podium. Most triumphant was Reuben Brown taking the gold medal closely followed by teammates Ashley Burnard and Alex Walton in silver and bronze respectively.

In the boys 8/9 Years, Milo French and Leon Baker battled it out for silverware, Milo eventually taking the silver medal and Leon the Bronze, both boys scored a 9 for their poolside forward jump pike.

Sofia Sathio also enjoyed a successful outing, achieving many scores of 8, she took the bronze medal in the girls 12/13 Years.

Victoria Kennedy won the silver medal in the girls 14/15 years performing 10 solid dives from the 1m and 3m springboards.

Other divers collecting top six medals were: Collette Guyett-Smith (4^th) in the girls 8/9 Years. Robbie Lee (5^th) in the boys 8/9 years. Ethan Bennett (6^th) in the boys 10/11 years. Megan Curtis (4^th), Chloe Harrington (5^th) and Victoria Ward (6^th) in the girls 12/13 years. James Madden (4^th) & Hamish Lindsay (6^th) in the boys 12/13 Years. Alfie Lakeman-Brown (4^th) & Jacob Batchelor (6^th) in the boys 14/15 years.

Lindsey Fraser, Southampton’s Director of Coaching said: “I was delighted our youngsters are following in the footsteps of our more elite divers and performed many excellent dives.”

Girls 8/9 Years

1^st Dulcie Wilson, 4^th Collette Guyett-Smith, 7^th Evie Brighton

Boys 8/9 Years

2^nd Milo French, 3^rd Leon Baker, 5^th Robbie Lee, 7^th Bryn James

Girls 10/11 Years

9^th Maya Kutty, 11^th Olive Ullyatt, 13^th Lucy Chandler, 23^rd Amy Leneve, 26^th Simone Habben, 28^th Mutyat Anibaba, 31^st Amelia Newman

Boys 10/11 Years

6^th Ethan Bennett, 10^th Nathan Bull, 12^th Oliver Cazaly, 14^th Finley Hughes, 15^th Jonathan Cross, 19^th Kai Lanham

Girls 12/13 Years

3^rd Sofia Sathio, 4^th Megan Curtis, 5^th Chloe Harrington, 6^th Victoria Ward, 11^th Astrid Davis, 12^th Ella Anderson, 15^th Grace Hill, 16^th Olivia Perera, 17^th Lucie Hill

Boys 12/13 Years

1^st Reuben Brown, 2^nd Ashley Burnard, 3^rd Alex Walton, 4^th James Madden, 6^th Hamish Lindsay, 7^th William Frewin, 8^th Thomas Crew, 11^th Thomas MacFadyen, 12^th Max Targett, 13^th Alfie Dudson, 15^th Alex Griffiths

Girls 14/15 Years

2^nd Victoria Kennedy, 7^th Suzanna Burt, 8^th Catherine Palmer, 18th Abigail Wales, 20th Abbie Wilson

Boys 14/15 Years

4^th Alfie Lakeman-Brown, 6th Jacob Batchelor, 7th Jamie Bevan, 9th Oscar Kitchen