This entry was posted on Friday, November 15th, 2013at 10:38 am by zoe.leahy@activenation.org.uk

Young Divers Excel At Southampton Competition

Top junior divers from all over England descended on Southampton for the 12^th invitational diving competition.

More than 120 divers competed during 3 days of competition on both Platform and Springboard, with the Active Nation Southampton Diving Club team stealing the show – winning 10 gold, 7 silver and 4 bronze medals. 

Southampton also ran out comfortable winners of the team trophy, beating Sheffield and Plymouth diving into second and third place.

This was the first competition of the diving season and the Active Nation SouthamptonDivingAcademy was well represented in every final. The club saw many of its divers not only win medals but also attain personal best scores and achieve the standard required to compete at this level at the British Gas National Diving Championships at Ponds Forge in Sheffield next July.

Director of coaching Lindsey Fraser said: “I was delighted with the success of the weekend and would like to thank all the volunteers who made it such a great event. My congratulations to our divers who performed very well, and we have several new divers qualifying for National age groups as a result of the weekend. Well done to all.”

Leading the way for Southampton was Gemma McArthur who dominated the girls’ 14/15 age group with an excellent display to win 3 gold medals in the 1m and 3m springboard, and the platform competitions. Gemma dived consistently well all weekend and showed her inner strength by holding her nerve and calmly executing her toughest dives, which included dives from the 10 platform for the first time in competition. 

Maddie Angell won the silver medal in the platform event also competing optional dives from the 10m board for the first time and achieving many scores of 7 in this event. Maddie also attained personal best scores in the 1m springboard and 3m springboard events winning silver and bronze respectively.

Angus Kerr, competing in the youngest age group of 11 & under, was top Southampton boy making the finals on all three boards and finishing with two golds, comfortably winning his 3m Springboard and Platform events.  On 5m platform Angus scored several 8’s winning the preliminary event by a massive 36 points.  In the girls 11 & under Tia Pritchard won bronze in the 3m Springboard final, where, with some consistent diving, lifted herself from her 4^th place preliminary position.

Lewys Oakley won gold on platform in the boys 14/15 years achieving a personal best score and performing a forward 2.5 somersaults with 1 twist from 10m platform for the first time – scoring 7’s.  He also won a podium position in the 3m springboard competition, improving his 5^th placing in the preliminaries, to achieve a bronze medal.

Brandon Foster also won a place in all three finals, winning Gold in the boys 12/13 years 1m springboard event and achieving a personal best score in the final. He was narrowly denied a second gold on the 3m springboard, with only a 1.75 point margin he claimed silver.  Team mate Rhys Crookes won silver in the 1m springboard final in this age group where he also achieved a personal best score.

Tanya Watson dived consistently all weekend, confidently performing several new dives, in the girls 12/13 years competition and was rewarded with a gold medal in the platform event where she swapped positions from the preliminaries with team mate Emily Martin who comfortably took the silver.  Both girls achieved personal best scores and won a place in the finals on all boards.

Mollie James, Lauren Grinstead and Sarah White all dived in the girls 16+ age group and all took their place on the podium.  Lauren Grinstead won gold in the platform event confidently performing an inward three and half somersaults from the 10m platform for the first time in competition. Team mate Sarah White also won silver in the platform event. In the 1m springboard event Mollie James maintained her preliminary position to win the silver medal whilst Sarah took the bronze medal position improving on her 5^th place preliminary position.

Charlie Wood comfortably won gold in the boys 16+ platform event, 23 points ahead of his closet competitor.