Plymouth Diving supported by Pilkington Estates, took a strong team of 15 divers to compete in the Southampton Invitational Diving Competition, which sees both Age Group and Junior Elite divers competing together. The event provided the opportunity for the divers to test new dives, move between age categories in preparation for 2025 and represents an early opportunity to gain a National Finals qualifying score. The competition was fierce with some fantastic performances from the Plymouth divers.
In the A category for 16 to 18 year-olds Louie McCue produced some outstanding dives to make the finals on 3m and 1m coming 4th in both events. However, in the Platform event he produced his best dives and won a well-deserved gold medal. The A girls also performed well with Erin Healey, Eva Lang, Martha Ticehurst and Rose McCabe diving excellently all weekend. Rose won a superb bronze on 3m beating several Junior Elite divers in the process. Teammate Erin also had a great weekend winning an amazing bronze on Platform and making the final in the 1m event but wasn’t able to add to her medal tally as she placed 4th. Both Eva and Martha were diving up an age category and performed excellently all event with both securing PB’s and National Finals scores. Martha was consistent throughout and competed many new dives throughout the weekend. Eva performed well across all boards but it was her superb Platform performance that was the highlight of her weekend finishing just behind Erin in 4th.
In the B category for 14 and 15 year olds Poppy Jones, Lincoln Stephens Charlie Clinick and Oscar Westbury were all competing. The divers walked away with lots of PBs and several qualifying scores. Poppy competed new dives in all events and managed to secure top 10 finishes in Platform and 1m and achieved the National Finals scores on all boards. Oscar and Lincoln pushed either on all weekend and secured superb top 10 finishes on all boards with National Finals scores on 2 boards each in a very competitive category, a brilliant achievement from both divers. Charlie was diving up an age category and performed well on 1m and 3m producing some great dives.
In the C category for 12 and 13 year old Alice Jones, Teagan Mousley, Isaac Ide and Harry Westbury were competing and all performed excellently. Harry led the way in this age category for Plymouth with silver medals in the 1 and 3 metre events and a well-deserved 4th in Platform as well as National Finals scores in all 3 events, a superb performance. Alice and Teagan dived consistently in all events and gained more valuable experience at this level with Alice achieving PB’s in 2 events and a National Finals score. Isaac secured top 10 finishes in all events with some great dives.
The youngest divers in the competition were in the D category for 10 and 11 year old divers with Emily Williams competing at this level for the first time. She secured 2 top 10 finishes coming a brilliant 5th on Platform and achieved the National Finals score on 1m at her first attempt. Theo Todd also travelled with the squad and gained valuable experience.
Overall, the weekend was a resounding success with the Plymouth divers once again showing why the city has a reputation for producing some of the best divers in the country. The club would like to thank the amazing coaches Tommy Davis and Cody Powell-Tuckett along with Mark Jones for taking on the judging responsibilities.
