SDA Newsletter — November 2025

SDA
Nov 2, 2025
7 min read

Southampton Invitational, 18-20th September 2025 - SDA Team Shines at Three-Day Competition

The 2025 Southampton Invitationals showcased an exciting weekend of diving talent, with ten clubs from across the nation competing across a range of age groups and events. With over 160 divers taking part, the competition was a resounding success - filled with impressive performances, great sportsmanship, and a fantastic team atmosphere.

The SDA Diving Team delivered a strong set of results across all three days, finishing an impressive third overall in the team trophy standings, just behind Dive London (winners) and Southend (second place).

Adding to the excitement, the team proudly introduced their new mascot, Milo the Monkey, who brought plenty of smiles and encouragement throughout the event.

A special highlight was Jed's achievement in winning the Gavin Brown Trophy (20SC) for the highest raw score on any back or reverse somersault dive in the entire competition - an impressive 24.5 points.

The 2025 Southampton Invitationals was a fantastic celebration of diving, teamwork, and community spirit. The SDA team's results, enthusiasm, and professionalism both on and off the boards made the club proud.

Southampton Invitational - Acknowledgements & Highlights (Girls D/C, Open C)

Acknowledgements and Thanks: The success of the Southampton Invitationals would not have been possible without the dedication and hard work of many individuals and organisations. A huge thank you goes to Hannah and her home competitions team, along with all the volunteers who helped make the weekend run so smoothly. Thanks also to the companies who contributed prizes and support, including Lush, Rituals, LEGO, Space NK, Matt Baker for the lunches and Aaron Dolman for his generous food donations. A special thank-you to our coaches and BH Live for supporting our divers throughout the event.

HIGHLIGHTS

Girls D - 1m: Thea 5th | Skye 7th | Chloe 16th. 3m: Thea 5th | Skye 10th. Platform: Thea 6th

Open C - 1m: Joha 6th. 3m: Joha 7th. Platform: Joha 8th

Southampton Invitational - Highlights (Girls B/A, Open B/A)

HIGHLIGHTS

Girls A - 1m: Samantha 13th. 3m: Evie🥉 | Samantha 4th. Platform: Kayla 5th | Samantha 6th | Isabelle 8th

Open A - 1m: Andrei🥉 | Adam & Alex🥉. 3m: Pietro🥉 | Alex 4th. Platform: Jed🥉

Talent Games 2025

Thea St Omer and Hollie Hewer travelled to Leeds to compete at the 2025 Swim England Diving Talent Games. The Talent Games is a national competition, including dry land and pool-based events, held across two days of competition. We are incredibly proud of the effort and hard work the divers and coaches have put in leading up to the event and it showed in all their performances.

Emerging talent Hollie Hewer excelled at the national Talent Games, placing: 2nd in Dryland, 2nd in Pool, 🥉 1st Overall.

Thea St Omer also gained valuable experience, finishing 18th overall in her debut appearance.

Thank you to the coach Matt who attended along with Natalie and Imogen who were judging as part of the DiSE Programme.

London Legacy 2025, 14-17th November

Well done to our Elite and Elite Potential divers who recently travelled to London for the London Legacy Open which takes place every year in memory of David Jenkins. Thanks to coaches Matt and Tom who also travelled up for the event.

Results

Day 1: Girls A 3m: Natalie 31st | Evie 36th. Open B Platform: Harry 11th | Jack 15th. Girls C 1m: Kate 17th | Emma 18th. Open C 3m: Rami 12th

Day 4: B Female 3m: Immy 9th | Ella 19th | Samantha 25th. C Female Platform: Emma 12th | Kate 17th. C Open 1m: Rami 14th. A Open Platform: Jed 9th | Pietro 19th

Peter Waterfield, 22nd November 2025

Peter Waterfield 2025 Results

Open D: Oscar H 9th | William B 10th | Albie M 11th

Open E: Daniel T 4th

Girls E: Pearl D 9th | Chloe D 14th | Sophie F 16th

Girls C: Aurelie T 🥉 | Taliyah C 5th | Tosia M 8th | Abi W 12th | Erin M 14th

Open B: Leo M 🥉

Girls B: Freya S 🥉 | Lily B 🥉 | Rebecca N 4th

Well done everyone and thank-you to all our coaches & volunteers 👏👏 A fantastic weekend for Team SDA!

Swim England Youth Development & Junior Development

Swim England Youth Development: Kate and Hunter attended their 4th Swim England Youth Development Squad training in Plymouth. The camp was focused on twists and hurdlestep. During the camp they had the opportunity to show their attention to detail and willingness to try skills. The staff and coaches looked to see their ability to breakdown existing skills and make changes whilst also demonstrating impeccable form and consistency.

Swim England Junior Development: Well done to Ella who has been selected onto the National Junior Development Programme 2025-2026. Ella attended her first camp in September at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre, giving it her all both in and out of the pool! 💪💦

The camp focused on technical diving elements including hurdle step, platform run-up and twisting. Ballet with Anna provided an opportunity to work on fundamental posture and leg line, helping develop body control and alignment. A cooking class built positive lifestyle habits 🍳 A visit to Lilleshall enabled the group to watch the British Acro team in action and a chance to work on gymnastic-based twisting skills to support their own diving development.

Thank you to all of the coaches (including our own Matt Roberts) and practitioners and @sw_engdiving for a fantastic opportunity!

Diploma in Sporting Excellence (DiSE)

Imogen and Natalie recently judged at this years Talent Games in Leeds. Both girls are on the DiSE program (Diploma in Sporting Excellence) which is a UK government-funded program for talented athletes aged 16-19 that combines sport with education. Here is what Imogen said about the course...

"In September 2024 I was selected by Swim England to join the DiSE programme. DiSE is a 2 year course which fits in around my A levels and allows me to push further into my passion for diving. It is funded by the Department of Education and supported by Loughborough College. They hold dive camps and online workshops which help me gain important information about topics such as nutrition, injury prevention, psychology and anti doping.

Since starting the programme, I have gained my Level 1 judging certificate, volunteered at Talent Games 2025 and participated in multiple online meetings where we learn about the importance of health and safety, safeguarding and mental wellbeing.

My tutor and I also have 1 to 1 meetings where we discuss how diving is going, and general life which we then log so that we can see improvements in the future.

This programme helps me to understand the importance of these different topics, while also supporting my life skills and commitment to diving."

Congratulations also to Adam and Evie who have also joined the programme this year.

Swim England South East Regional Awards & GBDF Winter Masters

Swim England South East Regional Awards 2025 - Age Group Group Coach of the Year

Our very own Matthew Roberts has been selected as the winner of the 'Age Group Coach of the Year' in the Swim England South East Regional Awards 2025. The 2025 Awards recognise Swim England members and clubs, showcasing those that create great experiences across aquatics. Matthew's award recognises the fun, safe and inspiring environment he has cultivated for children up to 16 years old to learn, grown and fall in love with aquatics. The panel were very impressed with the nominations received which demonstrated Matthew's outstanding commitment to coaching within the sport along with the excellent support he has provided divers within your club, for this reason the panel felt Matthew was a worthy winner of this award. As a Regional Winner Matthew's nomination will go forward to be considered for the Swim England Award for Age Group Coach of the Year.

Great British Diving Federation Winter Masters

The 2025 GBDF Masters Winter Championships took place at the Sandwell Aquatic Centre over the weekend of the 8th and 9th November. Congratulations Ian Hammond and Robert Shearer on their medals! Shout out to the GBDF for organising a fantastic event.

Ian - Gold 🥇, Robert - Silver 🥈, Ian and Robert - synchro 14th

SDA Alumni: Gary Hunt & Coaches Corner

SDA Alumni - Gary Hunt, Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series Champion 2025

Life member, Gary Hunt, becomes 2025 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series Champion, for the 11th time! Huge congratulations! 🤩🙌👏

Coaches Corner

The 2025/26 season is now well underway, and the coaching team have really enjoyed working with their squads, and are excited to see what next year holds as the divers build towards their potential national events.

The SDA team has been host to both Southampton Invitational and Peter Waterfeild Novices and both events ran remarkably so well done to our entire SDA team for this achievement.

We hope you are all looking forward to a well-earned Christmas break and good celebrations at new year. - Matthew 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