Medals on the road for Sheffield Diving

First to Rostock, where the 66th International Divers’ Day event took place over 18-21 January. Competing for Sheffield were sixteen year-old Maisie Bond on the 10m Platform and Jordan Houlden on the 1m and 3m springboards. Bond finished 11th in the preliminaries with 242.95, then gave a fantastic performance in the semi-finals to come 2nd with 297.75. In the final, her score was a creditable 265.35 to finish in 8th place. On 1m, Houlden scored 368.10 in the preliminaries, finishing in 1st place – he went on to come 2nd in the final with a score of 351.50, winning the silver medal. It was gold all the way in the 3m event, with Holden leading the way in the preliminiaries, semi-final and final, including a massive 89.30 points for his forward four-and-a-half somersaults with tuck in the final.

In Doha, the diving element of the World Aquatics Championships was taking place from 2nd to 10th February, with Sheffield senior elite divers Yasmin Harper and Ross Haslam taking part. In the Men’s 3m springboard event, Haslam made it through to the finals, finishing in 6th place with 438.60 but producing a dazzling forward four-and-a-half somersaults with tuck that scored 83.60 points. This placing also secured a spot at Paris 2024 for Team GB in this event. But it was in the 1m competition where he won a medal, coming in 3rd place in the final with 393.10 to take bronze. It was bronze for Harper as well. Diving with Scarlet Mew Jensen of Dive London in the Women’s 3m synchro event, the pair scored 281.70 to come in third.

A larger team of 18 divers headed to the Netherlands to compete in the Eindhoven Diving Cup, from 1st to 4th February. On the first day, a silver medal was won by Izzy Diacon in the C Girls 1m event with a score of 230.05. Hannah Blake took bronze in the A Girls Platform competition, scoring 312.85, while in the A Boys Platform event, Noah Bartle took bronze with 412.55 and Oscar Willcox won gold, scoring 455.10.

Day 2 saw three more medals added to the haul. Oscar Willcox added a second gold to his collection, this time in the A Boys 3m competition, with a score of 468.30 in the final. Izzy Diacon won her second bronze, scoring 242.80 in the C Girls 3m event, while in the B Boys 3m competition, bronze was won by Robbie Wood with a score of 357.40.

The most successful day was the third, with three golds and a bronze being added to the total. First was the impressive Oscar Willcox, who sealed his dominance by winning the A Boys 1m with a score of 470.55. In the same event, Lewis Neilson came third with 406.00 to take the bronze. The next gold was won by Daisy Lindsay in the B Girls Platform competition, scoring 305.95. Finally, winning his second medal of the meet in the B Boys Platform event, Robbie Wood took gold with 383.05.

The total haul was eleven medals - five gold, one silver and five bronze. Also putting in good performances were Lois Bruce, Hannah Gowan, Sebastian Willcox, Simeon Greig, Willow Kesteven-McGrath, Eimear Satherley, Etta Dodsworth, Chloe Strutt, Sophie May Hancox, Jessica Ireland, and Archie Biggin.

Sheffield Diving head coach Tom Owens was delighted with the performances, saying, “It has been a very busy few weeks of diving for the clubs junior and senior athletes. The junior team in Eindhoven performed fantastically ahead of the upcoming Junior National Championships in April. Over in Doha, Ross Haslam and Yasmin Harper played their part at a recording breaking World Championships, which saw British Diving close out on seven medals and third in the medal table. Ross performed consistently to secure Great Britain a second Olympic quota sport in the Men’s 3 metre springboard and Yasmin achieved a historical back to back world championships medal in the Women’s 3 metre springboard.”