Southampton Invitational 2019 Review
A team of 25 Plymouth divers started the diving season with flair last weekend, competing at the Southampton Invitational.
The only girl to represent the club in the group D platform event was Scarlett Colbourne and she did it in style to win gold. Not content with one gold; Scarlett won another in the 1m final! Amelie Underwood gave a consistent performance in the group D 3m preliminary round to finish 6th in the final.
The boys in group D on the 1m board saw Ollie Heath shine through to win gold, closely followed by Theo Stevens who won the silver. Harry Denham also made the final to finish in 6th. Evan Walker and Will Heath were just outside the finals on the 1m and 3m board placing 7th and 8th in their first Age Group competition – both gave impressive performances.
Group C proved to be particularly challenging for both the girls and boys. Competing against 36 divers Maia Pearson narrowly missed the final, placing 7th on the 3m board. This was also true for Ben Kearton on the same board and again, just missed out on the 1m board final placing 8th.
Katie Martin dived up an age category into the Group B section and reached the 1m final to finish in 5th position, she later dived in the 3m final and triumphed to win the bronze medal. Lucy Gutierrez-Freeman in the same age group came 5th in the platform final after a solid performance.
The trio of group A girls from Plymouth were very fruitful with at least one of them making every final. Maria Marasescu finished 6th in the platform final. The 1m board proved to be more successful for Maria and she won the bronze medal with teammate Abby Fishleigh finishing 6th. In the 3m final Abby upped her game to claim the silver medal and Evie McCabe won the bronze.
Also in group A; Calvin Krimmelbein improved on his personal best score to qualify for the 3m final, finishing in 5th position.
Ben Hall and Lexi Davies experienced their first competition at this level and held their composure to dive well. Eva Lang, Lily Walker, Yvie Tucker, Harlie Stringer, Polly Evans, Pheobe White, Ellie Pearce and Archie Waines also proudly represented the club, some of whom improved on their personal best scores.
Coaches for the weekend were Fito Gutierrez, Ashley Hendrick and Ryan Wills.
