Junior Elites

The British Elite Junior Diving Championships hosted by the Plymouth Life Centre, concluded on Saturday with a hoard of medals for Plymouth Diving. Showcasing the best talent on offer in the UK, this is a tough competition for the select few. For most it also represented the first competition in 19 months.
Amelie Underwood in group C 12/13 years won the silver medal on the 1m board with Scarlett Colbourne comfortably getting the bronze. The 3m board saw Amelie win a second silver and only 0.45 points off the gold. With a lower tariff in the preliminary round Scarlett improved on her fifth position to finish in fourth.
The only Plymouth diver to compete on all 3 boards was Ollie Heath who incredibly managed to medal on every board after some amazing dives. He won silver on platform, bronze on 3m followed by a further bronze on 1m. Team mate Theo Stevens also had a great competition and only just missing a podium spot on both the 3m and 1m by a frustrating 0.45 points.
Summer Radcliffe and Katie Martin represented group B 14-16 girls. Katie misjudged her footing on the 1m board and showed true grit and determination to carry on after a horrible fall. In a field of 17 divers Summer qualified easily in third position. With all finalists fighting for medals and despite diving well, Summer finished in sixth. On the 3m board Katie fared better in tenth position with a personal best score. Summer was on track to qualify for the final until her last dive where an error on takeoff caused a drop in scores and so she missed the final this time.
Euan McCabe in group B and partner Robbie Lee from Southampton teamed up to win the silver medal in the platform synchro. The individual platform gold was never in doubt for Euan. For the second consecutive time at these championships the title was his with a personal best score of 445 points.
Aidan Heslop also won gold on platform in group A 17-19 years, with a stupendous score of 560.2 points. He outclassed his competitors with three dives each scoring over 80 points. Aidan and Ruby Thorne from Dive London dived as a mixed synchro pair for the first time as part of a plan for Team Wales. The pair hope to qualify for the Commonwealth Games in this new event.
Euan has already secured a place at next months FINA World Junior Diving Championships as a result of silver and bronze medals at the Junior European Championships in June. Aidan also achieved the qualifying score and awaits confirmation of selection to the prestigious event in Ukraine.
All of the Elite Divers are coached by Sally Freeman. Without her ability to spot talent and nurturing skills then the divers would not reach their full potential and produce results to be proud of.