Southampton Diving Academy sent their largest ever squad of 20 elite divers along with Director of Coaching Lindsey Fraser, and Senior coaches Jack Clewlow and Matt Roberts to this years event, held over 4 days in Plymouth during the Easter Holidays. Each diver competes in a preliminary event with the top 6 progressing to the finals where National Titles are at stake as well as positions in international competition squads, so the pressure was high. The team excelled, taking a total of 21 medals, 5 gold, 9 silver and 7 bronze.

When most children would have been tucking into their Easter eggs, these 20 aspiring athletes were training hard for the first events of the meet - the hotly contested Synchro events.

SDA got off to a flying start with Lauren Hallesalka and Tanya Watson in their first comp as a pairing taking a bronze medal in the Girls 14-18 Years 3m springboard against a field smattered with seasoned pairings and Commonwealth divers. Evie Johnson and Georgia Adams took also took a bronze in the Girls 18 and Under platform synchro.

Pairing of Tilly Brown and Plymouth based partner Summer Radcliffe took the bronze in the Girls 13 and Under 3m synchro.

The Boys 13 and Under 3m synchro event was nail biting from the off with lots of SDA interest. Milo French and Robbie Lee took a silver medal having got to within 2 points of the gold which went to SDA team mate Leon Baker and his new partner from Crystal Palace, Jack Jefford; National Champions on their first competitive outing.

Milo and Robbie were in fighting spirit though and took to the platform in the Boys 18 and Under event, the youngest pairing in the field aged just 12 and 13 respectively and the only pair competing in both springboard and platform events. They held their nerve and performed an excellent final dive - a back twisting somersault from the 5m to nick the gold and the national title from the older and more experienced pairing from Sheffield and Leeds diving clubs, by just over one point.

So far, so good.

Onto the individual events and SDA were firing on all cylinders and making finals in every age category.

In the Girl’s 16-18 platform event all 3 of our divers successfully made the finals, Lucy Hawkins ending in 4th place, Emily Martin taking the silver and Tanya Watson taking the gold medal with a superb forward three and a half somersault from the 10m which scored a rare 9 from the judges.

Maya Kutty competing at this level for the first time defied expectations to make the final of the Girls 14/15 3m, she improved on her preliminary position to finish 4th in the final only 5 points short of the bronze medal and beating some very experienced girls in this strong category. She wasn’t done yet though, she battled through to the final in the platform event as well, team mate Georgia Adams finishing in the agonising 7th spot in the prelims. Kutty finished 6th in that final but within touching distance of the girls ahead of her. An impressive debut.

In Girls 13 and Under we had two girls representing, Freya Kelly competing at this level for the first time, and Tilly Brown who made all three finals with some really consistent diving, finishing 4th on both the 1m and 3m, and taking a silver on the platform.

Onto the boys, in the 1m Boys 16-18 event both SDA divers made the finals, Thomas Bailey taking 4th spot and Cameron Gammage taking a well earned bronze. Cameron also made finals on the 3m along with team mate Brandon Foster, this time he took the silver, with Brandon finishing in 4th position. Both Brandon and Cameron went on to qualify for a thrilling platform final, with Cameron taking a third medal, another bronze, and Brandon taking a well deserved silver after a nail biting few dives.

Another diver new to elite level who excelled was Nathan Bull, probably the youngest in the Boys 14/15 years category, he did remarkably well to qualify for 2 finals taking an incredible silver medal on the 1m and a 6th place on the platform. Team mate Angus Kerr coming back from a very long period of absence due to injury also made the 1m final, finishing in 6th.

Boys 13 and Under proved a rollercoaster for our SDA divers. Leon Baker took a great silver on the 1m with Milo French taking the bronze. Milo went on to take the platform gold, his 4th medal of the meet, to retain his British National Championship title the following day, with Robbie Lee taking the silver in an unbelievably close final - less than two points between gold and bronze. At the end of an exhausting week, Leon was the only SDA boy to make the 3m final, and managed 5th place in an exceptionally tough group.

Coach Matt Roberts said “Southampton are looking really strong and dived at a very high level at Elites. It was also great to see them all being so supportive of each other throughout the events". Coach Jack Clewlow added "“I was immensely proud of the performances from the whole team, the future for Southampton's divers looks to be in good shape.”