National Intermediate Age Group Springboard and Highboard Diving Championships
Six divers from Cambridge travelled to Crystal Palace to compete in 13 events at the National Intermediate Age Group Springboard and Highboard Diving Championships and came home with 5 medals. Star performer was Sophie Clark with a gold medal winning performance on the 1 metre board in the girls 12/13 year group. Sophie, a talented gymnast from Linton has been diving with the Cambridge Club for just 18 months but pulled out all the stops to produce her best performance to date scoring 134.00 points. She outperformed all the other divers with a solid list of difficult dives all scoring 6's or above. It was widely expected that Sophie would also win the 3 metre title. Everything was going to plan with a magnificent forward 1 1/2 somersaults. Unfortunately there was a hold up in the programme as Sophie was about to take her second dive. She lost concentration and over spun her inward double somersault. Despite a brave effort to regain the lost ground she ended with 114.85 for 4th place. Sophie was joined in the 5 metre highboard event by team mate Emily Hall and both produced winning medal performances. Emily, who specialises in the highboard event, took the silver medal with a magnificent set of dives all scoring 6's to score 102.20. She was joined on the podium by Sophie in the bronze medal spot with 93.00 points.13 year old Nick Orlowski had a great 1 metre competition where he could do nothing wrong. He was consistent and composed on all his dives to win the silver medal with 111.30. Just outside the medals in this event was team mate Theo Morton who finished a disappointing 5th with 104.25 after dropping his final dive. Theo managed to make up for it in the 3 metre event with a fine display scoring 124.80 for the bronze medal. This time it was Nick who dropped a dive to finish in 6th with 97.25.
9 year old Sharnia Mockford, competing in her first National event at this level, just missed out on the medals with 5th places in both the 3 metre and 5 metre events for 9-11 year olds. She started both events really well but was let down by her last two dives. She came 7th in the 1metre event.
Unluckiest diver was Matthew Jaroszeiwicz in the 14-16 year group. His first ever competition on the highboard so nearly ended with a medal, but a dropped reverse dive in the final round put him in 4th place with 101.20 points missing a medal by just 1 point. He dived consistently in the 1 metre event on 5's to score a creditable 170.20 for 5th place.
gold & bronze |
silver |
silver |
bronze |
Posted 22/07/2003