Commonwealth Heroes Welcomed Home
Members of Southampton Diving Academy teamed up with Southampton City Council and the Holiday Inn to host a memorable homecoming party for the swimmers and divers from the city who competed at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
In all five divers, two swimmers and their coaches, whose training is based at The Quays, ‘Eddie Read’ Swimming and Diving Complex, were honoured at a high profile event which enjoyed support from a variety of local companies and organisations.
The party took place on Thursday 30th March at 7.30pm at the Holiday Inn, with the guests of honour being whisked to the event in style by a local limousine company, Hampshire Limousines.
The swimmers, Chris Jones (20) and Gail Strobridge, who represented Scotland and Guernsey respectively, both made a good showing. Jones got through to the final in the 50m breast stroke where he took 8th place, having swum a personal best time of 29.04 mins in the semi-final, which broke the Scottish record.
The most successful member of the English diving team was Peter Waterfield (24), who took the silver medal on the 10m platform. Between them the Southampton divers also won two fourth places courtesy of Peter Waterfield in the 1m springboard event and Stacie Powell (19), who with partner Tonia Couch from Plymouth represented England in the synchronised highboard event. Gareth Jones (21) also took 10th place in the 1m event. Gary Hunt (21) took third place in the synchronised platform event with his partner, Callum Johnstone (15) from Sheffield. All four divers are coached by Lindsey Fraser, Director of Coaching at Southampton Diving Academy and holder of the Helen Rollason medal for top female coach of the year in 2004 in recognition of her role in Peter’s achievement of silver medal in the 2004 Olympic Games.
Whilst Lindsey’s divers made up almost a quarter of the English team, Southampton Coach, Steve Gladding headed the Scottish team, which included Monique McCarroll, also based at The Quays.
Conor Swift, Facility Manager at The Quays, was delighted that the Southampton clubs were so well represented at the Games. “I am so proud of the athletes in reaching the Commonwealth Games and look forward to seeing them back in training at The Quays and setting the bar for competition in the future”, he said.
The homecoming celebration was an opportunity for the city to celebrate the outstanding achievements of both competitors and coaches. The Sheriff, John Slade was on hand to present each of them with a lasting memento of the occasion, which recognised the hard work and dedication that goes into reaching this level of international competition.
Chair of Southampton Diving Academy, Anne Clewlow, paid tribute to their commitment. “This is a tremendous achievement for both the athletes and their coaches and to have such a large contingent going from a relatively new facility is amazing”, she said. “We have seen the hard work and sacrifice that has gone in to reach this pinnacle and I am delighted that so many people are prepared to put this effort in to ensure that the participants understand how proud we are of them all.”
After the formal part of the celebrations were over the teams had the opportunity to let their hair down and party with their family and friends, ending the evening with a disco.
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