Dive Team Success at Armada Cup

Daisy Halls, competing in the girls group B event, gave Cambridge Dive Team a flying start, winning her preliminary 1 metre springboard event before securing the gold in the final. Halls also entered the platform event, once again earning a place in the final but narrowly missing out on a podium spot placing fifth. Her last event of the weekend was the 3 metres springboard, placing 7^th in the prelims but ending her competition in high spirits. Daisy performed admirably all weekend and qualified herself a spot at the National Age groups on all three boards.

Day two saw the Girls Group C divers start their competition, one of the largest groups at the event with over 30 athletes battling it out for a medal. Three Cambridge divers took part in the 3m competition; Tobi Fayomi, Zia Gordon and Amelia Aldridge. Fayomi showcased multiple new dives and placed 27^th in a tough event, while team mate Gordon also increased her difficulty, performing new skills to place 15th. Aldridge lead the group placing 5^th in the preliminary, qualifying for National Age groups, and subsequently third in the final, taking home the bronze medal.

Next up for the girls was their platform event, another long event where divers had to maintain a calm and concentrated state of mind. The team from Cambridge put in some solid performances in what was a very closely contested event, Tobi placing 19^thand Zia placing 17^th.  Amelia held her nerve and performed some strong dives to secure a finals spot, placing 6^th in the prelim and climbing four places to take home a silver medal in the final. This performance once again qualifies her a spot in the National Age Groups meet.

The final event for the group was the 1m event where all Cambridge divers achieved the required score to claim a place at nationals later in the year, Tobi finishing 10^th in the prelim while both team mates Zia and Amelia progressed through to the finals in 2^nd and 3^rd respectively. The final was a tight event with only 3 points separating the top 5 – Zia placing 4^th overall with Amelia taking home her third medal of the weekend with a second silver.

The final set of events in which Cambridge took part was the Boys Group C events. First up was the 3m event, Dominic Williams and Charlie Tibbatts placing 13^th and 12^th respectively in their first competition at a national level. Rufus Bord took the event by storm placing second in the prelim, qualifying for a spot at the National Age Groups, and taking home the silver medal in the final after performing some spectacular dives.

The next event for the boys was the 1m event, where all three divers secured themselves a qualifying score, Dominic placing 11^th while Charlie narrowly missed out on the final in 8^th. Meanwhile Rufus secured his third final of the weekend taking 5^th place in the prelims and held onto his spot during the final. After a busy schedule the boys faced their last event, the platform, in which Dominic placed 12^th, Charlie placed 9^th and Rufus placed 7^th.

Dan Murphy, Professional Coach at the club, said “All our divers put in a really good performance, earning some well-deserved spots in finals and taking home medals for Cambridge. It’s great to have secured qualification for the upcoming Nationals later in the year ”