Southampton divers took an impressive medal haul at the British Diving Cup in Sheffield last weekend held from 5th - 7th February.
Taking golds in all three of his events, Peter Waterfield led the team with an impressive return to top level competition in his favourite discipline where he took the title in the individual platform event over 40 points ahead of the World Champion.
Partnered by team mates from Southampton, Max Brick and Chris Mears, he also won golds in platform and 3m springboard synchronised events respectively, showing clearly his return to form and the outstanding quality of the diving now occurring at the Quays. Both partnerships have been formed within the last few months and are now set to be ongoing into the international arena.
Southampton born and bred lad, Max Brick (17), took the bronze medal in the individual platform event, scoring a personal best performance in the preliminaries with a very steady list of dives.
Max capitalised on his increasing maturity on the platform when he teamed up with Peter for the synchronised event. Their list included a near faultless back 3 ½ somersaults in the tuck position, which attracted scores of 9 both for the technical quality and the synchronicity of execution.
Returning to the elite competition circuit after life-saving surgery just a year ago Chris Mears (17) gave outstanding performances, resulting in a haul of 3 top ranking positions in his three events.
On the first day of the event his new pairing with Peter Waterfield proved to be an exciting prospect when they took the title in the 3m synchronised event with a promising performance which included strong required dives and a high degree of difficulty in their optional skills. Describing the experience afterwards Chris said: "This was our first competition together and although we have performed the list better in training we are happy to have won the event today. We train together and are looking to continue the partnership through 2010. It is really good to be back competing and to be alongside Pete is great. He always gives me tips on how to improve. It is a great experience to be up there next to an Olympic silver medallist."
Not to be outdone by the male members of the team, Stacie Powell teamed up with Rebecca Gallantree of Leeds to take gold in the Women's 10m synchronised event with a good performance that bodes well for the future. She was joined in the event with two all Southampton pairings of Emily Alderman (17) and Rachel Holland (14), who took the bronze medal (and were top ranked juniors) and team mates Georgie Wingrove (14) and Bethany Watts (14) who were just 0.12 of a point behind (and 2nd ranked juniors).
In the individual platform Emily was 2nd ranked junior girl and Georgie Wingrove 3rd ranked.
Georgie also partnered Ellie Fleming (14) from Southampton in the 3m synchronised springboard event where they were just out of the medals in the senior event after a less than perfect 4th round dive. However, their synchronicity was outstanding, scoring several 8.5's and 9's and overall they finished the 2nd ranked junior team.
Team coaches, Lindsey Fraser and Charly Tomkys, were more than satisfied with the weekend's results. "Our synchro results were outstanding and we were obviously over the moon with Pete's individual win," Fraser explained. "We are very excited by the part we will be playing in the National Teams this year."
Peter, Max and Chris are now preparing to compete in Rostock, Germany at a Grand Prix diving event at the end of February and Stacie will be jetting off to Russia for a similar event following a training camp at the beginning of March.
left to right: Tom Daley, Peter Waterfield, Max Brick
left to right: Suzanne Collins, Jenny Cowen, Rebecca Gallantree, Stacie Powell, Emily Alderman, Rachel Holland
left to right: Ashton Hall, Callum Johnstone, Peter Waterfield, Chris Mears, Oliver Dingley, Jack Laugher