Albatross Diving Club put in a strong performance at their first competition of the season; the Southampton Invitational. Finlay Cook and James West led the team bringing home two gold and two silver medals.
Competing in boys B (14-15 yrs) Finlay Cook won gold on 3m where a strong inward two and a half somersault contributed to an outstanding personal best performance (289.65). He repeated this success on 1m where a newly learned back one and a half, one and a half twisting dive helped clinch the silver. Finlay recorded a PB on platform to finish 4th.
James West used his newly learned back one and a half somersault pike to win gold on 1m (boys C 12-13yrs). On 3m a well-executed back two and a half somersault dive brought James the silver whilst on platform James finished 6th.
Charlotte West and Hal Watts also won medals in the Group A (16+) events. Charlotte won silver on platform with the help of a PB scoring inward two and a half somersault dive (51.3). Charlotte returned to the podium to take silver in the 1m and bronze in the 3m events. Hal recorded a significant personal best (317.9) on 3m to win the preliminary round before going on to take silver in the final. After strong performances in the preliminary rounds, including several new dives, Hal finished 5th on platform and 6th on 1m.
Alongside this podium success Albatross divers reached the final in a further three events with many team members also achieving personal best scores. Edward Beal and Ollie Breach both made finals in boys B (14-15yrs) events. Edward delivered a strong PB performance on platform to finish 6th whilst Ollie dived consistently well on springboard finishing 5th in both the 1m and 3m. Billy (Group A 16+) alongside Quinn Shaw, Ethan Jones and Sophie Bailey (group C 12-13 yrs) all competed well across their events with Quinn recording PBs on all boards and Sophie a PB on platform.
The invitational was a first taste of age group competition for five other team members. Zac Cooper, Natalia Ivanov, Molly Lefever, Milly Orgill and Tilly Waight gained valuable experience across all boards with Tilly in particular showing a promising performance on 3m where she performed her newly learned front two and a half somersault dive. Coaches were also impressed by Zac’s strong showing in the infamous charity “chamois ripping competition” which ends with a showcase jump or dive from the 10m platform! All of these divers will be looking forward to future level 3 events.
This was a great start to the season for Team Albatross with Fin, James, Hal and Charlotte proving that Albatross can deliver podium success on the National Grand Prix Circuit.
