Last week around 170 athletes from across 20 teams headed to Sandwell Aquatics Centre for the Swim England Diving National Age Group Championships. Plymouth Diving sent a worthy team of fifteen talented participants. It is an achievement in itself just to qualify for this competition and divers work hard all year to take part. Attending other competitions across the country in order to qualify is made possible by the support of Pilkington Estates.
Seth Greentree our youngest and only group D diver entered all three individual boards. At his first NAGS Seth achieved incredible results. Finishing sixth on 1m, fourth on platform with a bronze medal for 3m. If this wasn’t enough Seth teamed up with group C diver Harry Westbury where the successful pairing were adorned with a silver medal. Harry also achieved a top 6 finish on the 1m board and joined fellow group C diver Isaac Ide on the 3m and platform where they achieved consistent scores.
In a very large pack, the five B girls representing the club had their work cut out. Our youngest B girl, Poppy Jones had the added pressure of her first NAGS. Poppy did particularly well on 1m with a twelfth place finish out of thirty and a respectable eighteenth out of twenty-eight on 3m. Martha Ticehurst and Eva Lang also took to all three boards. Martha’s best result was on 1m finishing in the top two-thirds with Eva in a comfortable eleventh place. Eva dived confidently throughout and made huge personal progress, conquering mental blocks to perform several challenging dives. Evie Royal our least experienced diver did herself proud finishing seventh on the 1m and 3m board. Lexi Davies an accomplished diver had two top five finishes and a bronze medal for platform.
At their first NAGS group B boys Lincoln Stephens and Louie McCue took to all 3 boards. Louie achieved a PB score for 1m. The highlight for Lincoln and Louie was without doubt their 3m bronze medal. Will Heath started his group B events with a trip to casualty. Injuring himself prior to the 3m event meant he had to withdraw. After his disappointing start Will was back with determination for platform. He could not have dived any better, securing the gold medal. In a close fought 1m event Will finished in fifth – only 3.8 points off the bronze medal.
Ben Hall our only group A boy was ninth on 1m and a commendable sixth on 3m. Recently finishing his A levels Ben has decided to retire from diving to go off on his travels. He first competed back in 2019 and has amassed several medals during his diving journey.
The three group A girls dived in every event open to them. With a PB on 3m Maddie Elliott secured the bronze medal. 3m also proved to be the most successful board for Erin Healey in tenth position out of twenty-two closely followed by Rose McCabe in eleventh. Rose’s best individual finish was ninth on 1m out of a pack of twenty-seven. Rose paired up with Lexi from group B for the first time and were overjoyed to win the 3m synchro gold medal in a popular event. Erin and Maddie finished in ninth.
Notably the Plymouth Active Leisure diving scheme has produced a flexible group of divers with the majority of the team competing across all three boards demonstrating their vast range of ability. Talent has to be nurtured by coaches and credit has to be given to Tommy Davis, Fito Gutierrez and Cody Powell-Tuckett. Plymouth Diving was also represented by judges Mark Jones and Joel Trenchard.
