Three medals for Southampton on day one of NAG Diving 2016

There were three medals for Southampton on day one of NAG Diving 2016, as well as gold for Lexie Howard and Francesca Doran in their renewed partnership.

Southampton Diving’s Milly Batten and Tia Pritchard had a significant lead at the end of the third round of the Girls C/D 1m Synchro event and continued their form to top the podium with 179.40.

Their main rivals, Amy Rollinson of Luton Diving and Frances Webb of Cambridge Dive Team, fell back into second place, despite leading for the first two rounds. They took the silver medal with 174.84.

Star Diving’s Tilly Brown and Anna Wilson completed the podium, taking bronze with a score of 159.36, only a fraction ahead of the Plymouth pair in fourth.

In the Boys Girls C/D 1m Synchro event, Leon Baker and Ethan Bennett of Southampton Diving took the gold medal with 169.14, just over a point ahead of second place. It was double bubble for Southend diving though, whose divers secured silver and bronze medals.

Bennett said, “It feels really good to get gold. We weren’t expecting it at all, but we are both really proud of what we have done. We train together three times a week, and it’s paid off.”

Baker added: “This is my first time at this competition, and I still have the 1m, 3m and platform to go, so I’m looking forward to those.”

Hudson Laurence and Max Lano were just behind the Southampton pair with 167.94 points, while their club mates Todd Geggus and Hayden Rayment finished with 161.88 for the final spot on the podium.

Lexie Howard and Francesca Doran win 3m Synchro gold

The Dive London Aquatics Centre pair Howard and Doran pulled off consistently high scoring dives and finished five points ahead of their rivals from Southend and Plymouth.

They topped the Girls A/B 3m Synchro table with 216.24.

Marney Easen and Amie Hudson of Southend took silver with 211.32 and Shana Vallance and Aimee Fishleigh of Plymouth finished on 195.90 for bronze.

Howard commented on their performance: “It feels really great to get a gold medal, it feels even better because of my silver last year. I have a new synchro partner which is great.

“I’ve recently moved from Crystal Palace to Dive London, but I had a two month break in between, so it has been quite hard to get back into it.”

Doran added: “We used to train together a lot, but then I moved clubs. We’ve only recently got back together again and the last few weeks we have just been working really hard.”

In the Boys A/B 3m Synchro event, it was Plymouth Diving who topped the medal table. Connor West and Harry Mason took gold, with fifteen points to spare, finishing on 228.62.

Scott Palmer and Thomas Graham of Southampton secured their club’s third medal of the say with silver (213.60) and City of Leeds took bronze thanks to some solid dives by Alex Wood and Robert Southby, who finished on 204.06.

  • Click here to view full results from the ASA National Age Group Diving Championships 2016.
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