Twelve novice divers from Southampton Diving Academy made qualifying standards that will take them to a National Competition in 2009 at the weekend.
Competing in the Peter Waterfield Novice Competition held at the Quays on Saturday 4th October the youngsters all made scores that put them in line to be selected to join the squad that will compete in Sunderland next March.
The event attracted entries from eight diving clubs from across the south of England and resulted in a medal haul of 15 for the Southampton club.
Most successful members of the team were William Osborne (8), Abigail Baker (9) and Chris Lingard (15), who all took golds in their events.
The secret to success for William was consistency, with every one of his scores lying between 5 and 7 points over the twelve skills performed.
In her first competition with the club Abigail did outstandingly well to take her title. Her reverse pike sit from poolside was particularly impressive, attracting a score of 8 from one of the judges.
Experience showed with Chris Lingard, the oldest diver in the team, who took his title with an impressive final score of 350.4 points. Despite an uncharacteristically shaky start with his 1 ½ somersaults tucked off the 1m board, Chris went on to perform his other 11 dives to a consistently high standard, giving him the second highest final score of the meet.
"We saw some very nice skills from our divers today," said Chris Gravestock, senior coach at the event. "We still have plenty of time before March to be polishing them, so we will be hoping for some good results at national level next year."
William Osborne
Full results:
Charly Capon, 7th; Jaimee Gundry, silver; Kim Luxton, 8th; Steph Smallwood; 9th; Danielle Barnes, 6th; Chloe Bowers, bronze; Louise Brown, 5th; Georgia Farr, 4th; Abbie Fretton, silver; Bethany Gibbons, 7th; Mollie James, 5th; Katya Sheath, 11th; Nicole Woodbridge, 9th; Abigail Baker, gold; Aimee Coppin, 4th; Miranda Dibden, bronze; Amy Pritchard, silver; Chris Lingard, gold; Lewis Brown, 8th; Sam Mason, 11th; James Mortimore, bronze; Scott Spearing, silver; Marcus Wiseman, 10th; Brandon Parker, bronze; Andrew Talbot, 11th; Lewis Coleman-Smith, silver; Camran Duffy, 8th; Kieran Sharley, 12th; Harry Talbot, 11th; Callum Weldon, 6th; William Wiseman, 7th; Robbie Brodie, bronze; Ben Hufton, 4th; William Osborne, gold; Thomas Wrightson, silver; Brandon Foster, silver