White Rose
13th/14th October 2007
Competing at Leeds in the White Rose Novice Competition, Anna Dawson was the shining star winning gold in the Girls group B+ age group. The Cambridge Dive Team took a small team of six divers to perform in the two day competition that saw some performances of the highest quality and results to back them up.
Competing in the Girls Group B+ age group Anna overcame her nerves to dive with elegance and an aesthetic line matched by no other. Performing first on the 3m springboards, Anna chose to take some risks attempting dives in the harder piked position but gained the advantage with higher tariff dives. A back dive that had troubled Anna in practice scored 7s from the judges. Building on this boost of confidence, Anna then performed an inward dive piked scoring 8s. Consistently high scoring followed Anna down to the 1m springboard where she opened her list with a forward dive piked scoring 7s. A forward on and half somersaults with tuck was a highlight dive for Anna and saw her move into second place going into the finals. Feeling relaxed and eager for success it was clear to see Anna was going to be hard to beat. Some great splashless entries and technically sound dives saw Anna claim the gold medal with a finals score of 101.1.
Matthew Goodfellow also showed a solid performance in the Boys group D prelimaries finishing in 5th place and making the finals. Again, Matthew had to overcome his nerves to fight for a place in the finals against some very tough competition. Dropping his forward one and half somersaults only spurred Matthew on to come back and score 6½s for his back dive piked on the 1m springboard. In the finals Matthew improved his position by one place finishing 4th overall with a score of 79.45. As an added bonus Matthew showed his true competitive nature by performing his dropped one and half somersaults again in the finals and scored 7s from the judges.
Lara Rudin finished 8th in the Girls group E category which is a respectful result in her first national competition. April Goodenough, Melissa Chandler and Dania Lindop capped a fine performance by all Cambridge divers and highlighted the foundation and depth that underpin the success at the Cambridge Dive Team. Coach Sam Buck was delighted with the performances and manner in which the Cambridge Divers competed.
Posted 27/10/2007.
Anna
Dawson