Southampton Invitational 2007
There was hat-trick of golds for Daniel Goodfellow in a medal fest for the Cambridge Dive Team at the Southampton Invitational diving competitions. Daniel stood out winning 3 gold medals in Cambridge's most successful competition in recent years. Lucy Cliff claimed gold, silver and bronze in the girl's event, with other medal winners Matthew Roberts claiming two silvers, Aaron Paul silver, and Sebastian Jaunzens bronze adding the haul. The Southampton Invitational Grand Prix event attracts the best junior and senior divers from this country and abroad and therefore is a great indicator of a divers ranking.
Daniel Goodfellow showed dominance on both the 1 metre and 3 metre springboards as well as the 5m platform to assert himself as a very talented all rounder in the boys group D events. Daniel qualified in first place for all of his finals. His clean lines and dynamic style stood out far and beyond his fellow competitors with scores averaging 6½s on all dives. An inward one and half somersaults on the 1 metre springboard scored 7s and 8s which underpins Daniel's quality on even the most difficult of dives. Daniel's final score for his 1m event was 276.45. Building on this fantastic start another gold followed on the 3 metre springboard winning with a total of 304.45. To complete the hat-trick Daniel took to the highboard platform where he qualified in first place with a lead of almost 40 points. This took the pressure off Daniel in the final but due to his desire for success, two stunning opening dives simply moved Daniel further ahead. Daniel had won gold without even performing his last dive. Daniel impressed both the crowd and onlookers including the National team selectors by showing a true champions performance and maturity beyond his age.
In the girls group D age group, Lucy Cliff put in an exceptional performance in the platform event to win gold with a total of 319.55. Performing a harder list of dives than her fellow competitors only accentuated her ability as Lucy scored 7s for her back one and half somersaults. Lucy was the only girl in her age group to use a back armstand dive which highlighted not only her strength but also her confidence and individuality on the platform. Along with this gold, Lucy also claimed a silver medal on the 3 metre springboard and a bronze on the 1 metre springboard, matching team-mate Daniel for all round talent.
In the older age groups, Aaron Paul and Matthew Roberts finished 2nd and took the silver medals for Cambridge on all 3 boards. Aaron dived a consistent list capped by a forward two and half somersaults scoring 7s to take silver with a total of 408.4. Matthew Roberts, competing in the boys group B events, dived exceptionally well on both the 3 metre springboard and 10 metre platform to maintain the medal collecting habit by winning two silver medals. Matthew's back two and half somersaults with half twist from the 10 metre platform brought the crowd to live and spontaneous applause scoring 7½s from the judges as the last dive of the finals. Again, another diver from Cambridge won medals on both springboard and platform proving to the diving community that Cambridge is a club to be reckoned with and has strength and depth not only in different age groups but also in different disciplines.
Other great performances were also seen by the youngest divers in the competitions. Emma Watson, Anna Sambrook, and Martin Christensen were never going to be competing for medals but at 8 and 9 years old gained valuable experience and caught the eye of other clubs. A star of the future was definitely a common theme with their performances.
Cambridge head coach, Sam Buck, was truly delighted not only with the divers' performances but also with the divers' professional manner and attitude to the competition. "For me, the divers deserved every medal they won. The preparation for this competition has been spot on with every diver putting in 100% effort both physically and mentally. I know this is start of even greater things to come."
Posted 03/11/2007.
Southampton team (left to right): Lucy Cliff, Aaron Paul,
Daniel Goodfellow, Matthew Roberts.