A group of eight young British divers took on some of the world’s top junior divers at the Aachen Talent Cup over the weekend.

The squad of eight took on athletes from Germany, Sweden, France, Switzerland, Egypt and Poland.

Grace Reid (Edinburgh), Joanna Matthews (Luton), Louise Moran (Leeds), Bethany Watts (Southampton), Freddie Woodward (Sheffield), Sam Knapp (Southampton), Harry Gower (Luton) and Josh Dowd (Leeds) finished the competition after amassing 12 medals.

Reid dominated the springboard events amassing three gold medals and a silver over the course of the meet.

Matthews put in an impressive performance in the platform event to take gold over teammate Reid with an impressive 221.65, brining her personal medal tally to two gold and two silver medals.
 
The rest of the team were not to be outshone by the pair. Louise Moran who had been struggling with a sore back, dug deep to take bronze in the under 13 platform and 5th in the 3m springboard event. Sam Knapp also took bronze in his platform event an event which took a staggering 90 minutes to complete.

Freddie Woodward took bronze in the 3m springboard event in an equally long competition and collected a second bronze diving with Josh Dowd in the 3m synchronised event. Unlucky to miss out but coming away with vital experience was Harry Gower of Luton, twice missing just one final dive to slip from a silver to fourth in the 1m springboard and 6th on the 3m springboard.

Bethany Watts completed the performances off with an encouraging performance in both platform and 3m events. Watts, performing the most difficult dive of any member of the team (an inward 2 ½ somersaults from the 5m platform) which is the progression skill for the inward 3½ somersaults from the 10m platform finishing in fourth position.

-ENDS-