Dive London’s Saxton completes clean sweep of Boys Group C national titles

Joshua Saxton of Dive London secured his fourth and final national title to complete a clean sweep of the Boys Group C events at the Swim England Diving National Age Group Championships.

It was the Boys Group C 1m event which came last in the schedule for Saxton and, just as he had done all competition, he produced a solid display for another gold medal place.

He joins City of Sheffield’s Willow Kesteven-Mcgrath in achieving a clean sweep after her Girls Group D Platform victory earlier on day three.

The Dive London athlete was more than 10 points clear of his nearest rival, with an overall score of 203.50.

Making up the other podium places were two Plymouth Diving’s Will Heath and Oscar Westbury, who clinched silver and bronze respectively.

There was just 0.05 separating the teammates ahead of the final round of dives, but Heath (191.25) outscored Westbury (187.90) to cement his second place standing.

Aberdeen’s Samuel Tomisson (202.10) performed well to win a commemorative silver medal.

Albatross aim high

After winning gold in the Boys Group A 1m to seal the first medal of this year’s competition for his club, Joe Foster of Albatross stood out yet again.

This time around, he impressed in the Group A 3m event, breaking the 300-point barrier on his way to a second gold medal.

Foster was more than 20 points clear of the field on the leaderboard and took a deserved win, with 306.60 points.

The battle for silver and bronze was a tight one, with Southampton’s Ryan Spiteri edging out Alex Cookson of Star Diving Club Guildford by 0.20.

A score of 281.85 from Spiteri saw him step onto the podium in the silver medal position, followed by Cookson with 281.65 for bronze.

Guest diver, Matthew Marshall of Edinburgh Diving Club, went one better than his silver in the 1m event to stand alongside Foster as he received his commemorative gold.

Two podium places for City of Leeds

In the Boys Group B Platform, City of Leeds teammates Lucas Moseley and Fred Crossley joined each other on the podium.

Moseley was the star of the event and, despite a slight blip in the fourth round, remained determined and reaped the rewards with his gold medal.

Crossley finished strongly to wrap up a bronze medal-winning score of 218.25.

Separating the pair was Plymouth’s Noah Underwood, who was bidding to add to his day two success.

However, Underwood scored slightly lower on his final dive and as a result, dropped below Moseley and into second place with what was still a very respectable score of 220.80.

Synchro success for Sadie

Sadie Stratford wasn’t content with just a silver medal on day three on the championships – she wanted a place on top of the podium.

In the final event of the day, she did exactly that and added the Girls Group A/B 3m Synchro title to her Girls Group B 1m silver.

Stratford paired with Rain Downer to represent Southend, and the duo added to Emma Mansfield’s triumph in session nine.

They took the gold medal with a score of 195.72, ahead of Dive London’s Isabelle Parkinson and Jaime Gilbert (187.71) and Plymouth’s Lexi Davies and Erin Healey (177.96).

A commemorative silver was awarded to Oksana Yevets and Gemma Dickson of Edinburgh.

Pictures: Morgan Harlow