2009 National Championships

This year the National Championships were held in Brisbane, there was three days of competitions from the 27th of February to the 1st of March. National Championships are very important and the National team will be announced at the conclusion of the events, also the Australian team for the World Championships in Rome in July will also be announced.

On the first day of competition I had both of my synchronised events. First was 3m synchro with Sharleen Stratton. We both dove very well and finished in 1st place with a score of 330.36 points, which was over 20 points clear of the 2nd placed Chinese team. 

After a very quick break, Melissa and I had the 10m synchro event. There were only two teams in the event, us and a Chinese pair. With very little warm up and practice, we dove very well. We won the event, scoring 349.98, over 25 points clear of 2nd place. I even scored a 10 on my inward dive! 

Sharleen and I, and Melissa and I both scored Personal Best scores, which also means new National Records!

On the second day of competition, which also happened to be my birthday, I had the womens 3m event. We had preliminaries, semi-finals and finals, so it was a long day. I had a few shakey dives at the start, and then found some consistency. I finished in 3rd place, but 2nd place Australian, won Sharleen the event and Chinese diver Fang Min, came second. 

On the 1st of March, there was the Diving Australia dinner, where it was announced that I was on the National Sqaud and on the Australian team for the World Championships in Rome in July.

September - November Update

After arriving back in Australia, I spent a few days in Melbourne. I caught up with my family and my previous diving coach Ian Nichols, who was unwell in hospital. It was lovely to catch up with everyone and show them my silver medal. I also got a tattoo, I went with my sister Sian to get the Olympic Rings tattooed on my left shoulder blade - it hurt a little but I'm really happy with it!

Then it was back to Brisbane for 26 hours, to unpack and re-pack before heading off to America for a holiday. I landed in LA and the next day started a two week Contiki tour. We went to San Diego, Phoenix, Sedona, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Yosemite, San Fransisco and back to LA. We jammed packed so much into 2 weeks, I went on a hot air balloon in the desert of Phoenix, a helicopter at the Grand Canyon, we drove up Route 66, Alcatraz in San Fran was amazing and a bit scary, we did a Beverly Hills tour and went to Muscle beach at Venice beach. It was great fun and the tour group was awesome.

I even got married to Steve in Las Vegas by Elvis - not real of course, but lots of fun!

Then I was off to New York City, where I spent five days. I walked many many kilometers and saw so many things. I saw Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, watched the Yankees play at Yankee Stadium, went on a Sex and the City tour - had a Cosmo at Scout, went up the Empire State building, saw the Statue of Liberty, walked up Wall St, Times Square and all around Central Park. New York was as amazing as I expected, so many places seemed familiar as you always see them on TV or in the movies. 

I had the best holiday, met so many lovely people, but it was time to go home and back to reality.

The day after arriving home dad called me with the very sad news that Ian passed away. So that day I was organising flights down to Melbourne to go to the funeral and say a last goodbye.

Before Melbourne I was off to Canberra for the last of the Olympic Athlete Parades, it was lots of fun. Then down to Melbourne for a not so fun week, I also said goodbye to my nanna who was gravely ill and has since passed.

Then it was back to Brisbane and straight back into 10 sessions a week. At the start my body felt out of shape and uncoordinated, luckily it started getting back into the rhythm pretty quickly.

There isn't much to report on the diving front, its been lots of basic dives and lead-ups, not doing anything tricky yet. My next big diving competition is National Championship which are in late February, up here in Brisbane.

Here is a link to the Podcast from radio show I got to do with Hamish and Andy at the Olympics.

http://austereo.castmetrix.net/podcast/378302368699158213/1/HamishAndyBestOfWednesday13thAugust.mp3

Beijing Highlights and Olympic Events

As I finished competing on the 12th of August i had lots of time to get out and see other Olympic events. I went to see Men's Gymnastics, I went to cheer on Ben Wilden in the Trampolining, Women's Waterpolo - Australia Vs China, Synchronised Swimming and Athletics - to see the Men's 100m Final! It was great to get out and see other events and soak up the Olympics.

As I finished competition early on, I was also lucky enough to get out and see the sights of Beijing. Channel 7 took Melissa, Scott, Sharleen and me to the Great Wall of China. It was a beautiful day in Beijing and it was very crowded on the wall. We caught the chairlift up and the toboggan ride down.

Yahoo 7 took me to the Beijing Zoo, it was lovely to see pandas and the very cute golden monkeys. Click on the link to watch my visit to the Beijing Zoo with the Fanatic from Yahoo 7.

http://au.sports.yahoo.com/olympics/video/-/fanatic/fanatic-in-beijing/?autoplay_id=9361421&p=2

I caught the bus with lots of other Aussie medallists to do a channel 9 show at the Heavenly Temple. It was a rainy day but still great to see the beautiful buildings of the Heavenly Temple. Its me in the golf cart with Liesl Jones and Anna Meares, and out the front of the Heavenly Temple with Emma Moffat - who got bronze in the Triathlon.

The day after winning the Silver medal i did lots and lots of media, including an early start of 4am, so i could do Sunrise and the Today show. The best fun was doing the Hamish and Andy show! I got to play tunes on my silver medal with a chopstick and my new name was 'tube home basket'

Women's 10m Platform Synchronised - Silver Medal

On the 12th of August, Melissa Wu and I competed in the Women’s 10m platform Synchro. There were 8 countries competing – Australia, Canada, China, DPR Korea, Germany, Great Britain, Mexico, USA. Melissa and I were the last pair to dive. Melissa and i had a great event, not really missing a dive and always having great synchro. We finished in second place behind the Chinese, who won with 363.54 points, we scored 335.16, and Mexico was in 3rd place with 330.06 points. I had a great time competing, it was fun not to mention nerve-wracking.

After the medal ceremony we had lots of media, then it was off to the press conference. Lastly I had to do a drug test. Once that was all done i was able to catch up with my dad Wayne and big sister Sian out the front of the Water Cube.