Competitive Diving returned to the Plymouth Life Centre last weekend after a 4 week break with Southwest Skills regional event. The event was the first chance for 24 Plymouth Diving divers to qualify for their National Finals at Southend in July.
Being the major powerhouse of diving within the Southwest region, it was no surprise that Plymouth Diving dominated the competition not just in numbers but also in the medals.
Kicking off the 12-dive circuit competition was the girls and boys of both E and C categories. The diving was an excellent watch throughout not just for the large vocal crowd in the stands but for the judges with many high scores being award in both categories.
In the E girls event the 3 representatives from Plymouth Diving all done a brilliant job with all of them gaining qualification score for them to make it to Southend with Aria Cole breaking the 300 barrier to take gold. Eva Colman cousin of the winner came int second with a personal best score of 272.55 and Nancy Moore claiming a bronze medal with another personal best of 262.55. E boys there was only 2 divers in the competition but both boys dived incredibly well to both advance into Finals weekend with Parker Harrison on debut winning gold by just 4 points from teammate Leo Ozkan who was very close behind in silver place.
C girls was a very tight affair with 3 Plymouth Diving divers finding themselves on the podium, all of them scoring above 300 points. Stepping up from D category last season and taking gold was Aneya Burton scoring 310 points tightly followed by last year’s C category gold medallist Rae Mossford and another diver to step up into a new age group Imogen-Rose Hockings claiming bronze medal. There were personal best scores for 4th Grace Norsworthy who has qualified for National Finals for the 1st time, Debutant Olivia-Rose Laverty in 6th place with a score of 268.80 and Florence Smith finishing in a creditable 8th position with a score of 251.80. Rounding off the Plymouth divers was Lottie Tucker narrowly missing out on a PB and Finals but another top 10 finish in 7th place.
As the afternoon moved on it was time for D girls and boys. A highly anticipated category within the girl’s section as it’s a category where the lead can change hands many times. Gold medal was present to worthy winner Stephanie Clarke who won by 20 points with a score of 309.80. Silver Medal was Honor-Grace Kelly with a personal best score and result of 289.90 and it was another 1st time medallist Millie Mclaren-Smith who rounded of the podium places with bronze on 287.75. Narrowly missing out on a podium position was Lacey-May Hockings who finished in 4th place with a score of 285.00 and personal best score of 283.75 from Bethany Hockaday placed her in 5th position. Plymouth Diving had 7 divers qualify from this category with debutant Charleigh Shape 6th place and Olivia Birkett in 7th both surpassing the qualification score with 269.80 and 255.80 respectively. Agonisingly missing out on getting the qualification score this time around was Katie-Rose Wilkinson scoring 235.05 to finish in 8th position.
Another quiet section was D boys where only 2 boys were entered. With Elliott McCamphill-Rose securing the gold medal in only his second competition representing Plymouth Diving and a real improvement on his personal best. Teddy Dalley was the other representative for Plymouth in this category taking a silver medal but found himself a little shy of qualification score for National finals but that didn’t stop him having the biggest smile on the day.
The finale of the day was with girls and boys B , which Plymouth had a single representative for each in the way of Isla Newton and Dixon Houghton. Isla was the first to get her category underway and dived superbly demonstrating great composure to claim a silver medal with a score of 275.95. Finally, it was Dixon’s turn to take to the boards and he did with great efficiency and desire to medal in gold position with a terrific score of 294.55
Plymouth Diving would like to say thank you to our terrific sponsors Pilkington Estates and Wollens solicitors for the continue support and to Plymouth Life Centre for the brilliant facilities which is allowing divers to flourish in training and during competitions.
Next up to for Plymouth Diving is Junior Elite Championships taking place to Plymouth Life Centre on April 11th-13th.
