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Alex Walton Diving 8KMR

Good News Story
Alex Walton Diving 8KMR


Alex went to the National Age Group Diving Finals which is his first year at high level diving. On the first day he came 9th out of 16 for 1m springboard synchro with Ashley Burnard from Park Gate having only been training together for 3 months – great result. Day 2 was platform diving where Alex performed a mixture of 5m and 7.5m dives. He equalled his personal best and came 22nd out of 25. Day 3 was 3m springboard where Alex smashed his personal best and came 20th out of 30. Finally on Day 4, he competed in the 1m springboard and again smashed his personal best from 155 to 179 and came 15th in the country out of 31. To put the event into context these 30 divers are the top divers (aged 12 and 13) of a diving community in the hundreds. They can only attend the nationals if they have achieved the qualifying score in the year preceding the event.
On a complete high and with great mind set, Alex travelled to Sofia, Bulgaria to represent Southampton Diving Academy in an international club event against clubs from Serbia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia, Romania, Lithuania, Austria and the UK (Leeds and Southampton) at an outdoor diving pool in the glorious Sofia sunshine. Day 1 was 3m springboard where Alex again smashed his personal best from the previous week and came 4th just missing out on Bronze by 0.3 of a point. He did not dive on Day 2 and just enjoyed 35 degrees of sunshine supporting others plus some gentle training. On Day 3, Alex was on platform (5m and 7.5m) where he took his personal best from 159 to 211 (outstanding) and deservedly came away with the silver medal. Alex sustained his consistency into Day 4 and on a windy day, he again smashed his personal best from 179 to 206 and sat in 4th going into the last round. He put in a superb inward one and half somersault in the last round and came away with the Bronze medal.
I think it was certainly worth the school giving him the time off for this representative sport where he has acted as a fine ambassador for his school, club and country and achieved a great deal.