SDA Newsletter — March 2026

SDA
Mar 1
4 min read

SDA Presentation Evening 2026

SDA Team celebrate achievements throughout the year including Club Championships and Coaches Awards.

Gavin Brown Love to Dive 2026 & Regional Skills London 2026

Gavin Brown Love to Dive 2026

Well done to all our divers that attended this year's Gavin Brown competition! The competition is held in Southampton every year in memory of Gavin who was a fantastic diver and coach for SDA. For many divers, this is the first step into competitive diving and one they remember the most!

Regional Skills London 2026

Our skills divers recently travelled up to London Aquatics Centre for the Regional Skills Competition. A very long day for all our divers but everyone put in some really good efforts. We have more divers heading to Plymouth for the next event so watch this space for more results.

Results: Open B - Leo McInnes 6th🥄. Female B - Lily Bryant 5th, Rebecca Nash 14th. C1 Female - Taliyah Clarke 7th, Emma Etheridge 8th, Emily Barnard 14th, Evie Taylor 15th, Erin Miller 16th, Isabelle Taylor 18th. C2 Female - Tosia Marszalek 9th. Female A 3m - Freya Sisson 3rd🥉. Female A 1m - Freya Sisson 3rd🥉. D1 female - Sophie Fry 12th, Pearl Dolman 13th, Chloe Davis 17th. D1 open - Daniel Tull 6th. D2 female - Tirana-Kacie Malaj 7th, Alana Pulsford 11th, Abigail Sutcliffe 13th, Aria Osborn-Jenkins 18th, Lily Rogers 25th. D2 open - Albie Morgan 9th. Well done everyone!! 👏👏

Scottish Nationals 2026, 6-8th February

HIGHLIGHTS

Well done to the SDA Team that travelled up to Edinburgh for the Scottish Nationals in February. Immy achieved a hatrick of 🥉, Jed and Ella picked up a 🥇 each. Harry, Pietro and Kate also reached the finals after finishing top 6 in their events 👏👏👏

Armada Cup 2026, 14-17th February

This year a large team of SDA divers travelled to Plymouth for Armada 2026. Lots of fun, competition and we also celebrated three birthdays for Thea, Imogen and Skye 🎂 Well done to the whole team including the support team and coaches.

Highlights: JE Open B: 1m - Jack 4th, Rami 6th | 3m - Jack 5th, Rami 6th | Platform - Jack 5th, Rami 6th. JE Girls B: Platform - Emma 4th | 1m - Emma 6th | 3m - Emma 6th. AG Open A: Platform - Jacob 5th. AG Girls A: Platform - Kayla 4th, Lana 5th. AG Open B: 1m - Ben 6th. AG Open C: Platform - Hunter🥉

Swim England Youth Development & Junior Development

Swim England Youth Development - England Youth Development Camp 🇬🇧

In January Hunter, Kate & Hollie attended the England Youth Development Camp in Sheffield with Coach Tom. The camp focused on basics and entries for the year 1 - Hollie, of which this is her first camp after qualifying at Talent Games last November. The year 2 athletes focused on required dives. The camp included ballet sessions, physio support and coach, parent/carer and athlete workshops.

Swim England Junior Development

Ella and Immy attended the Junior National pathway camp in Sandwell. The camp gave lots of opportunity for the divers to break down their back & inward take offs, develop their twist and armstand skills, take part in a surprise competition and sharpen their entries. Outside of the pool they took part in ballet, S&C and gymnastics sessions along with educational workshops. A big thank you to all of the coaches and staff that helped make it such a fantastic weekend!

SDA Alumni & International News, and Coaches Corner

SDA Alumni & International News

Well done to Olly Wignall who recently moved out to Hawaii on a scholarship while studying at University. He has just been awarded 'Freshman Diver of the Year'. Congratulations Olly! 👏🎉🎉

Also big news for Imogen Poole from our Southampton Diving Academy! After snagging three silver medals at the Scotland Nationals, this talented 15-year-old diver is set to make waves on the international stage. She's been chosen to represent Great Britain at the 9 Nations Youth Diving Meet in Stockholm this March and the Youth Diving Meet in Dresden come April. This marks Imogen's first Junior selection for Team GB, what an incredible achievement!

Good luck and congratulations, Imogen! We're all behind you! 🥇

Coaches Corner

We are now right in the thick of a very busy competition season, and the divers have performed brilliantly at our most recent events at Scotland and Plymouth, and we thank the support staff and coaches for their tireless efforts at these trips. The divers have also been attending our Swim England pathway camps and have worked really hard, so keep up the hard work for the camps in the future. Our competition team have also been firing on all cylinders, and we have hosted a very successful Peter Waterfield Novices and Gavin brown Love to dive, and we look forward hosting our regional age group event in May and then National skills in July. Lastly BH live and the dive programme are continuing to work together and grow the dive programme and are taking some really positive steps forward so well done to the team, and all the best to SDA for the rest of this upcoming season. - Matt Roberts, Head Coach

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