Southeast Regional Skills
Following hot on the heels of last weeks’ phenomenal performance, the Plymouth Diving
Skills divers sponsored by Pilkington Estates, travelled to Royal Tunbridge Wells in pursuit of
more medals. The Southeast Regional Skills competition held at the Tunbridge Sports Centre
provided the opportunity for the young divers to improve on their qualifying scores or a
second chance to qualify for the National Skills Finals, which will take place in Leeds on 9 th
and 10 th of July.
Once again it was the Group D girls up first, with the competition fierce and all the divers
performing well, it was a tough start. However, Isla Applin produced some excellent dives
and walked away with a thoroughly deserved silver medal, having smashed her personal
best. Following that amazing performance was never going to be easy, but Eva Tsianavas
dived well throughout and once again achieved the qualifying score, finishing in sixth place.
In the boy’s competition Isaac Ide put in some superb dives against some talented young
divers and narrowly missed out on a podium place, finishing in fourth.
In the Group C girls, the Plymouth divers were aiming for a repeat of the previous weeks
podium lockout, but the other competitors had other ideas and produced some very good
diving to really push the Plymouth girls. Last weeks’ winner Abi Bishop, finished in 8 th with
some solid diving and Poppy Jones produced some superb dives to take fifth place, only five
points from a medal. However, it was Plymouth’s Ava Cowper whole stole the limelight,
producing a brilliant performance to claim a well-deserved gold medal and break the 300
points mark in the process.
Next up was the Group C boys, with Kaiwen Dun taking fifth following a consistent round of
dives. It was Lincoln Stephens who once again showed his class, with some excellent dives to
claim the bronze medal.
B Group girls had the most divers competing and saw Plymouth’s Kiri Pethick aiming to gain
valuable experience and build on her previous score. She produced some good dives to
place a very respectable 18 th against a strong field of divers.
The divers were coached by Tommy Davis. The success over the last few weeks has shown
that Plymouth Diving can look forward to the National Finals in July with much optimism
and with the support of Plymouth Active Leisure and Pilkington Estates, the sky’s the limit.
