SDA Newsletter — July 2025

National Age Group Championships 2025

12 divers from Southampton Diving Academy travelled up to Sandwell Aquatics Centre in Birmingham this past weekend, to take part in the Swim England National Age-group Championship. The competition sees some of the country's top young divers competing individually from the 1m and 3m Springboards, to the Platform (up to 10m) and as synchronised pairs on the 1m and 3m Springboard.

Samantha Barr secured a treble of medals in the Girls 14-15 age-group, with 2 gold and becoming National Champion in both the 1-metre and 3-metre events, along with a silver in the Platform event. In the Girls 12-13 age-group, Kate Makare and Emma Armstrong secured silver medals in the 3-metre and Platform events respectively. Meanwhile in the Boys 12-13 age-group, Rami Cooper secured a bronze medal in the Platform event.

One of Southampton's youngest divers at the event Hollie Hewer, dived brilliantly to secure the bronze medal in the Girls 10-11 age-group platform event. There were also personal best scores for many of our divers including Jack Ellis and Rosie-Mei Dolman. Congratulations!! 👏👏

Matthew Roberts was also awarded with the Margret Davies Trophy for the top coach based on their results at both Elite and Age-Group events. Congratulations to the whole team and thank-you also to our parent volunteers for making it happen.

NAGs results highlights:

Female B 1m: Samantha Barr 🥇🏆

Open C Platform: Rami Cooper🥉

Female B Platform: Samantha Barr 🥈

Female D Platform: Hollie Hewer 🥉

Female B 3m: Samantha Barr 🥇🏆

Female C 3m: Kate Makare 🥈

Female C Platform: Emma Armstrong 🥈

National Skills Final 2025 - Southend

SDA were brilliant at this year's National Skills Finals in Southend, with some great performances across multiple age groups.

Group E Female: Chloe placed 20th - a confident performance to start the day.

D2 Girls: Livi finished 15th.

Group A 3m: Fabian Otten secured bronze in the Open category, while Emma Harrison placed 8th in Female.

Group A 1m: Emma 7th and Fabian placed 4th - fantastic!

Group B Open: Strong dives from Ben Rogers (6th), Ben Brook (8th), and Lincoln Otten (10th).

Group C2 Female: Lois Foster finished 12th.

Group C2 Open: Joha Pooley took home bronze - well done!

Group C1 Female: Natalie Macura placed 15th.

Group B Female: Freya Sisson finished 6th, with Lily Bryant in 13th.

Well done to all divers - a fantastic weekend for Team SDA!

International News & Swim England Youth Development

International News: Congratulations to Ella who brought home 3 individual medals at her first international for Team England at the Roma Junior Diving Cup in Rome. Ella won the Girls 12-13 years 3 metre and Platform events and got a Silver in the 1 metre event 🥇🥇🥈

Swim England Youth Development: Well done to Jed and Ella who completed their National Junior Assessment Camp in Sheffield. The camp took place over 3 days and they worked hard both in and out of the pool. The camp involved pool assessments on awareness, fundamentals and entries. Dry land included physical, core, strength, acrobatic assessment and physio-screening. Achieving the benchmark standards could lead to selection onto the National Junior Development Programme.

SDA Alumni: Bryn James

I have just completed my Freshman year at Texas Christian University (TCU), which is in Fort Worth, Texas. I'm currently studying for an undergraduate degree in Movement Science and Kinesiology with the aim of becoming a Sports Physiotherapist.

The diving training schedule is a minimum of three hours a day for six days a week, which includes weight training. It was a bit of a shock to the system when I started weight training as it was at 06:30!

The competition season runs from September to March and it is quite intensive. Competitions range between intercollegiate meets, competing at Big 12, and at Zones where you hopefully qualify for the NCAAs.

I had a relatively successful first season, some highs, some lows and lots to work on. My highlight this season, was being part of the team that won the Big 12 Team event and set a new NCAA record in this event.

If anyone is looking at continuing diving once they have finished their junior career, I would highly recommend it. I have absolutely loved my first year, not just the diving aspect but getting to experience a new culture, making some great memories and most importantly, having friends from all over the world.

SDA Alumni: Cameron Gammage & Coaches Corner

After four years on a sports scholarship at the University of Michigan, Cameron was back diving in Southampton last month. He headed out recently to compete for Scotland at the FINA World Series diving European leg in Bolzano Italy. Later in July he represents GB at the World Universities Games in Berlin Germany. Both events are a combination of 1m and 3m. Once a SDA diver always a SDA diver.

Coaches Corner

"It's great to look back on this season from where we started and how far we have come. Our coaching team have worked tirelessly to guide the entire programme through the season and the divers have shown that SDA is always a strong contender against the rest of the country with lots of national and international success once again.

Also nice to see a fresh new Committee who have settled into their roles brilliantly and have been a huge help already in supporting the programme.

The team here at The Quays is also very excited to transfer over to a new company in September, and we look forward to working with BH live to continue to enhance this programme.

Thank you to all the coaches, parents, volunteers and of course the divers for everything this year, enjoy the rest of the summer." - Matthew Roberts (Head Coach)

Volunteers Needed

SDA Volunteers Needed: Would you like to get involved with home competitions, away competitions, getting qualified to drive the minibus etc? We need you! Our trips and home competitions are only made possible by our wonderful volunteers and we need more help. Register your interest with sdaclubvolunteers@gmail.com.