Plymouth Diving

British Junior Elites Championships 2024
2024-04-11 08:00 - 2024-04-14 17:00 (Europe/London) | Sandwell Aquatics, Brimingham
The British Junior Elite Championship, a pivotal competition on the performance pathway, invites the top junior divers from across the nation to the prestigious event.
Plymouth Diving sent a team of ten, who showcased their talent, hard work, and dedication at this year’s championship, a four-day event held at Sandwell Aquatics Centre, home of the 2022 Commonwealth Games from 11th-14th April. Guided by coaches Fito Gutierrez and Sally Freeman who added “We are really pleased to have qualified a big team this year and went with high expectations of good diving as the divers have worked really hard to increase difficulty and work on consistency to try to achieve finals and medals. To come away with both of these is really rewarding”’.
The competition began with Oliver Heath and Archie Waines competing on the 1m event in the A (16-18) category. Heath and Waines both advanced to the finals later in the day, finishing in 4th and 8th place respectively with new personal bests and an impressive set of dives.
Both continued their successful performances by competing again the following day on the 3m board. They again progressed to the finals, with Heath winning the bronze medal with an impressive 504 points.
Noah Underwood, in his first Junior Elites competition in B group (14-16), competed on all three boards with morning preliminaries followed by afternoon finals over the four days, achieving 4th place on the 3m and platform, and setting a couple of personal bests.
Having joined Plymouth Diving in September, Taluyah Verwoolde enjoyed her first Junior Elites, competing as a guest for Netherlands under her club PSV Schoonspringen. Verwoolde dived in B-group girls on 1m achieving a PB, and on 3m.
Isla Applin enjoyed her debut at this level of competition in C group (9-13) girls, 1m, 3m and synchro events, diving in prelims followed by finals, and achieving a PB on 3m. Applin later partnered with Ella Swete from Southampton Diving Academy in the 9-13 age synchro event on 3m, walking away with the bronze medal.
Plymouths A-girls saw our largest field, with five divers competing in the 1m and 3m events. In a large group of 23 divers, Amelie Underwood reached finals on both boards, and continued her consistent skills to win two individual medals, bronze on 1m and a silver on 3m. Scarlett Colbourne secured herself a place on the 3m final with a beautiful set of dives and finished in 7th place with a personal best.
Team-mate Katie Martin competed on 3m and reached the final on 1m, finishing just off the podium in 4th place with a personal best. Maia Pearson and Ellie Pearce joined the Plymouth team on both 1m and 3m events, where the finals where in sight to the last dives.
The 14-18 age group synchronized diving competition was won by duo Katie Martin and Maia Pearson. They demonstrated their strong proven partnership with a final dive that secured them the gold medal, marking their last Junior Elites competition. Amelie Underwood and her partner Caitlyn Coster from Dive London also performed well, earning a bronze medal and joining Martin and Pearson on the podium.
In addition to executing their dives under pressure to the highest standard, the team displayed a real team spirit supporting each other throughout the long days.
From standout performances by individual divers to the success of synchronized teams, their achievements underscored the collective effort and dedication.
As always, thanks to the coaches Sally Freeman and Fito Gutierrez, and Plymouth Active, as well as sponsors Pilkington Estates.

GBDF Masters
2024-04-12 08:00 - 2024-04-14 17:00 | Life Centre, PLYMOUTH, Devon, PL5 3RZ
Back On Board!
The Plymouth Life Centre hosted the Great Britain Diving Federation Spring Masters last weekend. The two day event proved to be popular with several divers from Plymouth who all dived in the 16-29 year old category. In their heyday all of them represented Plymouth Diving at either Age Group or Elite National competitions.
Harry Mason competed at the Spring Masters last year in Southend where he won a 1m gold and a 3m silver medal. Entering only 24 hours before this year’s event, Mason and Tommy Davis put on a platform masterclass. Both received a slew of 8’s on their ambitious dive lists. Winning the gold medal, Mason just pushed Davis into the silver position. Davis was a massive 82.8 points ahead of the bronze contestant -making it hard to believe that he last competed in 2019.
Connor West joined Mason on 3m to give the audience another great display of diving. Once again Mason finished first to make it a double gold, improving on his 2023 results. West took the silver medal and performed the dive of the meet, nailing a reverse 2.5 somersaults in tuck – one of the most difficult dives executed all weekend – which received a colossal score of 57.4 – the highest of the championships.
Cody Powell-Tuckett, Evie McCabe and Abby Fishleigh prematurely retired from competition in 2020 due to the pandemic and the lack of training facilities at the time in Plymouth.
At her peak Powell-Tuckett was an outstanding diver winning a plethora of medals, representing England and Great Britain on numerous outings. Powell-Tuckett put on a solid and consistent platform display which saw every judge awarding her nothing below a 6 on all her dives. Particularly impressive was her inward 1.5 somersaults which scored a huge 54 points. To that effect, she was full value for a silver medal after finishing only 10 points behind stiff competition in the form of the RAF’s Charlotte Goodman. McCabe who was the only diver from Plymouth to take on all three boards was awarded the bronze platform medal.
Just like old times McCabe and Fishleigh were closely matched on the 1m and 3m springboard. Fishleigh just edged ahead of McCabe on 3m to win the bronze medal with McCabe in fourth. The nail-biting 1m event was hotly contested with positions changing throughout. McCabe jointly finished in second to claim the silver medal which nudged Fishleigh into fourth.
Joel Trenchard is a Plymouth Diving volunteer and was the GBDF Communications Director and Officials Lead at the event. Speaking after the event he had this to say:
It was a joy for the annual GBDF Spring Masters Championships to be hosted at Plymouth Life Centre. Being able to witness some of Plymouth’s finest talent from the pre-COVID days take to the boards again was indescribably special, with parents and young divers showing up in huge numbers to cheer on their now-coaches and their diving did not disappoint! The competition has generated massive excitement and enthusiasm for Masters Diving in Plymouth, from coaches to lifeguards to parents. Hopefully we will see Plymouth’s ex-stars continue to shine in future competitions.

Dresden and America Cup 2024
2024-04-25 08:00 - 2024-04-28 17:00
The end of April proved to be busy with competitions for three Plymouth divers. Our junior divers Amelie Underwood and Ollie Heath headed off to Dresden in Germany for the 11th Youth International Meet. Sally Freeman also from Plymouth Diving joined them as the Head Coach for the meet.
Group A1 divers Underwood and Heath made their debut for GBR at this competition last year. Both divers were selected for the Mixed Team Event and joined Hannah Newbrook from Dive London and Robbie Wood from City of Sheffield Diving. The quartet proved to be a good choice and complemented each other to secure the silver medal.
The individual rounds for Underwood and Heath were always going to be a challenge. Being the youngest in their category with a three year spread of ages and a lot less experience than the A3 divers. However, undaunted they absolutely gave it their best which was reflected in the results. Ollie finished the 3m preliminary event in 10th position out of 33. Upping his finish position to 8th in the final with a massive score of 501 points. Heath was not as well prepared for the 1m board because he had to step in to replace a fellow team mate at the last moment. Nonetheless he finished a respectable 16th out of 28 and got to trial some new dives.
Underwood had a very busy competition competing in four events. Caitlyn Coster from Dive London joined Underwood for the 3m synchro. Unfortunately Underwood struck her foot on the board on one of the dives and the pair finished in 8th position. Nursing a painful foot did not prevent her from qualifying in 12th position out of 35 to reach the 1m final. Delivering a confident set of final dives she finished in 9th place as the highest GBR contestant. The final day for Underwood was impressive. Into the 3m final with relative ease after finishing 4th out of 32. With a battle between four divers for the bronze medal Underwood just missed out in 5th by a shortfall of 1.05 points.
Meanwhile across the pond Euan McCabe was competing in the American Cup held in Indianapolis. Pairing up with Ben Cutmore from Dive London for the 10m synchro the duo were unbeatable. Performing the hardest dive list with the only forward 4 ½ somersault tuck in play they rightfully took the gold medal. McCabe also put in a sterling effort in the 10m individual round. Finishing in 7th position would have got him into the final if it had not been for the fact that only two GBR divers could qualify.
All three divers are coached by Sally at the Life Centre which has excellent diving facilities. The club is supported by Plymouth Active Leisure and Pilkington Estates.
