Plymouth Diving youngsters have begun their competitive season with a very successful season opener at the Pete Waterfield Skills event held at Southampton. Taking an extremely large team of 28 divers, led by coaches Tommy Davis, Lucy Gutierrez-Freeman and Jamie Conn to the one-day event.
The opening category to take the diving boards was the E open and girls category, these are the youngest members of the club and Plymouth Diving had 11 divers in this category ranging from debutants to more experienced competition divers at this level. The 12-dive circuit provided an excellent watch for the large crowd, with all the divers displaying great diving capabilities.
Plymouth Diving weren’t made to wait long to be celebrating one of their divers medalling at the competition, with Lacey-Mae Hockings finishing in 1st place breaking into the 300-point mark with a score of 308.00 with runner up further 20 points behind her. Finishing just outside the podium places was Ivy-May Davey continuing her excellent start to the season with a 4th place finish. Making their way into top 10 places were Bethany Hockaday (8th) Aria Cole (9th) and Saphia Howell (10th). The good results kept coming with Millie McClaren-Smith finishing in 11th place and Olivia Birkett 12th place and a massive personal best for Eva Colman placing 14th. Finishing inside the top 20 respectively was Katie-Rose Wilkinson in 15h position, with debutant and youngest member of the squad Nancy Moore further place back in 16th position, but certainly a debut to remember for her,
The open section is always smaller than the girls but this doesn’t mean the standards are any lower. The open section was a close fought contest throughout with the lead changing on several occasions throughout. Debutant Leo Ozkan found himself very close to finishing on the podium with a 5th place finish.
Another big group of Plymouth Diving divers were in the D girls category and as with the pervious group there was a blend of experience and first timers in a competition setting. D girls provided a fascinating watch with lead changing hand multiple times with divers producing big scores for individually dives. When the results came in it was a near perfect scenario for Plymouth Diving in the 5 out of the 6 medal places being taken by the club. Youngest in D girls, diver Honor-Grace Kelly finished in 6th, with team mate Imogen-Rose Hocking producing a consistence 12 dives to finish in 5th place. Just missing out on a podium place by a few points was Stephanie Clarke finishing in 4th. Bronze medal went to another Plymouth diver in the form of Phoebe-Mae Evans with her highlight being an incredible reverse dive on 1m and silver medal, just missing out on a gold medal by 3 points was Myia Lilley who increased her personal best score in the process in finishing runner up. Rounding off the Plymouth Diving interest in the girls category was Aneya Burton with a very creditable 22nd place, Lyra Johnson placing in 19th position and debutant Florence Smith with an impressive top 15 and finishing her first competition in 14th.
D open featured three divers from Plymouth and each one of them dived very well in the 12 dive circuit. Elliot McCamphill- Rose entering his first competition having recently joined in the competitive squad in September, managed to break through the 200-point mark and top 10 finish finding himself in 9th place. There were 2 more medals going to Plymouth divers in this category, Bobby Cole dived another consistent competition coming up just short of a podium place and medalling in 5th place. Biggest cheer of the day went to Theo Wills who missed out on a place in the finals last season but has worked extremely hard over the summer on his diving and the result ended up with Theo in bronze medal position.
Finally, it was the turn for C group and these divers were the eldest divers of the large squad Plymouth Diving took. In the category was plenty of experience and another two competition debuts in Catherine (Katy) and Elizabeth (Eliza) Butchers who both performed admirable in their first competition finishing 21st and 17th respectively. Lottie Tucker gave another solid diving performance and top 20 placing 19th. Plymouth had two more divers within the girls top 10 with Isla Newton in 10th place and personal best score for Grace Norsworthy finishing 9th.
One sole Plymouth diver was in open section, that privilege was for Daniel Robinson. Once again Plymouth Diving was celebrating another medal to add to the haul with a 3rd place bronze for Daniel.
With many divers improving their personal best scores and positions its testament to their incredible work ethic and to the coaches who work incredible hard with them on daily basis, making sure the divers are at peak condition going into competitions.
Plymouth Diving couldn’t do all this without the fantastic facilities at Plymouth Active Leisure and the continued sponsorship of the club from Pilkington Estates.
Next up for Plymouth Diving is hosting the Armada Cup from February 15th– 18th 2025.
