Eleven junior divers are finishing off their preparations before representing the British Gas team at the European Junior Diving Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
The five-day event, which takes place from 1st – 5th July, will see some of Britain’s top young divers take on Europe’s best in the 1m, 3m and platform individual events and 3m Synchro.
The British Gas team will be hoping to put in a good performance on the international stage with an aim of finishing fourth in the medal table.
Three divers on the team; Jenny Cowen (City of Leeds), Jessica Williams (Crystal Palace) and James Milton (City of Sheffield), achieved performance standards at this year’s British Gas Junior Elite Diving Championships that would have seen them place inside the medals at the 2008 European Junior Diving Championships.
Milton, 14, will return to the Championships after taking gold in the 10m Platform at last year’s event.
The British Gas team will face tough competition from Ukraine, Russia and Germany who scored highly in last year’s Championships, but Junior Development Programme Manager Steve Gladding will be hoping for some promising performances from his young charges.
“This is a team that we really want to develop for the future,” Gladding said. “I believe that there is potential for success within the team. We have seven athletes that have competed internationally before and this should give them a good basis going into the competition.
“There are four athletes that are making their international debut and to help them prepare we held a national day camp where they were given workshops on all areas of the sport including nutrition and Monique Gladding [an elite diver] gave a master class on diving in an open air pool.
“At the moment there is a really good atmosphere within the team. The athletes are all preparing and training well and the staff have been working hard to ensure that we all work well as a team.”
-ENDS-
The European Junior Diving Championships take place in Budapest, Hungary from 1 -5 July 2009.
The British Gas European Junior Diving Squad consists of:
Girls:
Harriet Bullough (City of Sheffield)
Jenny Cowen (City of Leeds)
Elizabeth Heald (City of Sheffield)
Hannah Starling (City of Leeds)
Saffron Sutcliffe (City of Leeds)
Aimee Walker (City of Leeds)
Jessica Williams (Crystal Palace)
Georgie Wingrove (Southampton)
Boys:
Oliver Dingley (Harrogate)
Jack Haslam (City of Sheffield)
James Milton (City of Sheffield)
For more information please contact the ASA/British Swimming Media Assistant, Lauren Sanderson on 01509 632236 or email lauren.sanderson@swimming.org
About British Swimming
British Swimming is the National Governing Body for Swimming, Diving, Synchronised Swimming, Water Polo and Open Water in Great Britain. It is responsible internationally for the high performance representation of the sport. The members of British Swimming are the three Home Countries national governing bodies of England (ASA), Scotland (Scottish ASA) and Wales. (Welsh ASA) British Swimming seeks to enable its athletes to achieve gold medal success at the Olympics, Paralympics, World Championships and Commonwealth Games.
About British Gas
British Gas, the biggest energy supplier in the country, has the lowest carbon intensity of any of the major UK energy suppliers in terms of tonnes of CO2 emitted per megawatt hour of electricity supplied to customers. The company is one of the biggest investors in renewable power generation, principally offshore wind. Its recently completed Lynn and Inner Dowsing development, off the Lincolnshire coast, is the UK's largest offshore wind development. British Gas is committed to energy efficiency. Our Energy Savers Report provides free expert advice on how you can cut energy use in the home and, in turn, save money. So far, the report has shown over 2 million people how they could make an average saving of £175 a year. To complete a report go to www.britishgas.co.uk/energy-efficiency/energy-savers-report
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