Junior diving elite heading to Plymouth

The British Elite Junior Diving Championships are set to take place at the Plymouth Life Centre from 30 March – 2 April.

The country’s best and strongest young talent will be heading to the south coast to show their progress ahead of sealing their place on international teams for the rest of 2016.

Almost 100 divers have entered the competition as they battle it out for national honours in Plymouth and local girl Victoria Vincent (Plymouth Diving) will be hoping to get back on to the podium after missing most of 2015 through injury.

On the back of impressive performances at the 7 Nations in Edinburgh, City of Sheffield’s Jordan Houlden will also be looking for a strong performance throughout the competition.

British Diving’s Talent and Development Manager Julian Bellan said: “Plymouth has become a home-from-home for our junior competitions with the event being hosted there for the fourth consecutive year in 2016.

“The Junior Elites will decide the GB Age Group champions for 2016, will serve to select the team for the European Junior Championships which take place in Rijeka, Croatia in June and our Youth England Team that will compete in Italy in July at the Mediterranean Cup.

“Although 2016 is a big year in terms of Olympic Games we must remember just four years ago Jack Laugher, Thomas Daley, Grace Reid and Hannah Startling were competing at this event in a bid to qualify for the Junior Worlds. The divers at this event could well be among our Tokyo dives in 2020.”

Councillor Pete Smith, Deputy Leader of Plymouth City Council, said: “We are thrilled to be able to host the British Elite Junior Diving Championships 2016 here in Plymouth. It is the premier event in the British diving calendar and showcases the fantastic talent we have here in the UK.

“We are very proud that Plymouth is home to some of these divers who are ambassadors for their sport and an inspiration to younger generations.

"The Council looks forward to continuing its work with Everyone Active, British Swimming and other partners to grow and promote the sport locally, regionally and nationally.”