Championships in Dublin

With a team of 16 Elite, Age Group and Skills divers supported by competing against 8 other teams from Ireland, the UK and Europe in a team of 16 divers supported by 3 coaches and 4 chaperones Albatross have returned from competing in the Swim Ireland 2023 Open Diving Championships in Dublin. For 14 of these divers it is their first international trip with the club and for all our first venture out of England since 2019.

With triple gold medals for Lauren and a PB score of 54 for her inward two and a half somersaults off of 7.5m, a gold for Hernan on 1m and a silver and bronze medal for Joe on 3m and 1m the team showed a strong performance in the Open events. This was particularly rewarding for Hernan as this was his last competition as a junior diver.

In the Age Group events Naya too took the bronze on 1m. Team support was strong and a plethora of PBs for the competing team members made this opportunity for the divers a wonderful experience.

Fin broke his previous 8 dive PB by 38 points on 3m, and Naya and Hannah too both broke their previous 6 dive PB’s on platform.

In the Skills events Amy had a tremendous event in girls B Skills with a PB of over 30 points on her previous totals and Sam, in Group C Skills, got close to his target of 270 with 263 points and a well deserved new PB.

Millan was our Skills medal winner with a silver in Boys E but, across the board, all the Skills divers showed how far they have progressed from the qualifying events earlier this year with Poppy and Laurie, in particular, achieving PB scores.

The journey this season for all has been testing with new dives being learnt, personal barriers overcome and, for this event, the additional challenge of being away from home and family. We would like to thank all who have supported us and to Swim Ireland for hosting such a well organised event.

Whilst for most this was the last competition of the year, 5 of the clubs divers: Joe, Fin, Lauren, Thomas and Ariana, will be representing their schools and the English Schools Southeast Division at this coming weekends English Schools Diving Championships in Manchester. In this team event Albatross will also be well represented by Officials with Malcolm, Matt, Nicki, Chris, Dave and Emma all contributing.