Northern Cross Diving Invitational 2007
Leeds International Pool
27th - 29th April 2007
Aaron Paul was the man of the moment in the 3m Open Men's Championship in the tenth annual Northern Cross Elite Diving Invitational. This event set up and run by the City of Leeds Diving Club in conjunction with Leeds City Council is the second largest event in the National Elite Diving Calendar. This was the final competition to be held in the Leeds International Pool where Cambridge head coach, James Etherington, trained during his diving career. The Leeds Team will be moving to a fantastic new facility later this year. Team mate Edward Hird dived well but was unlucky not to make the final finishing 9th in the preliminary competition. Aaron's triumph in the 3 metre event using 'knockout' style finals where six divers are reduced to one champion over five rounds. It was a tense final with divers performing the most difficult dives of the competition, with team-mate Matthew Roberts diving brilliantly and knocking out three other divers to finish in 3rd place and bring back a bronze medal. But it was Aaron putting in a spectacular list of dives, his final dives scoring 7s from all but one of the judges to crown him the champion. Matthew continued his winning style in the platform event. Making it all the way to the final round, knocking out four other divers in his wake, Matthew's final dive was just not strong enough to crown him champion and he settled for the silver medal and 2nd place. Edward Hird qualified through to the final in the mens 1m competition; Ed's first dive bombed out and meant an early retirement from a competition he looked like medalling in but he claimed 6th place and some valuable team points for the Cambridge Dive Team. Both boys competed in their age group (14-15 years) events and on the 3m springboard used complicated high tariff dives that enabled them to cruise into the final. It was a close and exciting final with all of the finalists hitting their most difficult dives Aaron finishing in 4th & Matthew in 5th with 134.40 & 129.85 points respectively. On the 1m springboard the two stormed through to the final with Aaron finishing in 2nd with 150.60 & Matthew 3rd with 131.40 points respectively to bring home silver and bronze. Matthew just missed out on a medal with a 4th position in the 10m platform event.
11 year-old Lucy Cliff and 9 year old Emma Watson represented Cambridge in the Girls D (9-11 years) competition. Lucy in her second year in this competition showed that she has dramatically improved performing some of the most technical and difficult dives in her age group. Lucy was unlucky to be placed just outside the medals on the 1m springboard, but took bronze medals in the 3m and 5m events with some spectacular diving. Emma, one of the youngest competitors in these events dived brilliantly in her first elite national event finishing with 146.00 points in 11th on the 1m board and making the top 10 on the 5m platform a considerable achievement for such a young competitor.
Daniel Goodfellow and Sebastian Jaunzens competed for Cambridge in the Boys D (9-11 years) competition. In the 1m springboard event both boys dived brilliantly in the preliminary event with Daniel qualifying in 1st and Sebastian in 3rd place. In the final Sebastian dived magnificently for Cambridge maintaining 3rd place and taking the bronze medal with 88.40 points whilst untypically Daniel was unable to hold the form we are used to seeing from the young superstar finishing in 4th.
In the 3m event Daniel just missed out of the gold medal to take the silver medal with 106.95 points. Moving up to the 5m highboard platform event both Daniel and Sebastian qualified for the final. Sebastian qualified in 5th with a score of 136.15 points, whilst Daniel stormed through the field qualifying in 2nd place with 196.30 points in the hunt for that gold medal. In an incredibly exciting final Sebastian showed improved form to move up into 4th place with 93.60 points, whilst Daniel exploded into action ripping through the water with no splash at all to take the gold medal with a massive 127.65 points for the Cambridge Dive Team.
Sharnia Mockford, diving back to form after some time off due to illness, competed in the Girls Group C (12-13 years) age group. In the 1m event she qualified for the final in 6th place with a score of 180.75 points, but raised her game in the final to finish 4th with 104.00 points just missing out of a medal by 0.10 points.
The Boys Group C (12/13 yrs old) events saw some really exciting competition this year. 12 year old Ben Sambrook from Cambridge competed on all three boards: 1m, 3m and the 5m highboard platform event. Ben competed well performing some new high tariff dives against a tewnty strong field of divers to finish 16th in all three events.
This was yet another fantastic set of results for the Cambridge Dive Team showing the improvement throughout all ages of the club. The coaching team were thrilled with the results and are looking forward to more success throughout the rest of the season. At the end of the month the divers will be competing in the National Elite Age Group Championships and with their current competition form Cambridgeshire could very well have some National Champions by the end of May.
The competitors (clockwise from top left): Sharnia Mockford, Aaron Paul, Matthew Roberts, Edward Hird, Daniel Goodfellow, Lucy Cliff and Sebastian Jaunzens.
Posted 12/05/2007