Diving Grand Prix's in Montreal, Canada & Ft Lauderdale, USA - 07

On the 29th of April the Australian Diving Team was off to North America, the first stop was Montreal. The team included: Sharleen, Melissa, Nikki, Peter, Scott, Rodger and me. Support staff included: Hui, Xiangning, Dr Song and Lisa Barrow as team manager. The Canada Cup was held at the 1976 Olympic Pool, which is in Olympic Park, which has lots of the other stadiums and halls they used for the Olympics. The pool is part of Olympic Tower which is the worlds tallest inclined building at 30 degrees of incline!
The diving pool itself was pretty good, the 5m and 10m platforms were new and they were nice and wide. The 3m springboards weren't too bad, but there were only two boards.

We stayed at the Auberge Royal Versailles Hotel, it was quite nice but the food was average. We caught the Metro to and from the hotel, between stations Radisson and Viau, which was only four stops. It was pretty cold in Canada, on average 12 degrees during the day, and very cold at night.

My first event was the Womens 3m on the 3rd of May. After prelims I was 7th out of 24. Next was semi-finals, I didn't dive very well and in the end I finished 10th.
On the 5th, Melissa and I had Womens 10m Synchro. We just didn't have a great day, our synchro wasn't as good as normal and our individual dives weren't fantastic. We ended up 4th which was really disappointing for us both. China won, then Meghan and Roseline from Canada in 2nd, and Mary Beth and Hayley from America in 3rd.

On the 6th, Sharleen and I had Womens 3m Synchro. We were pair 1, out of 8 teams. Our first two dives were good. I did an average back twist, Sharleen did an average back 2.5, and our synchro score were only 7 and 7.5's. Our full out was good, but we thought we were out of the medals so we went off to have a shower. That was until a lady told us to hurry up and marshal for our medal, we didn't believe her until we saw the scores. China won, then the Canadian pair and us only a few points behind.

The next stop on the North American tour was Ft. Lauderdale in sunny Florida! We stayed at the Sheraton Yankee Clipper, which was 1/2 a mile from the pool and right on the beach!

We competed at the Hall of Fame Pool with is a block from the beach. I was not really looking forward to diving 10m here cause it gets quite windy in the afternoons.
On the 11/5 I had Womens 3m in the morning, there were 26 girls in the event. My inward, front and front twist were pretty good, but my back and reverse were both short, so I didn't make semi-finals, which is disappointing. That evening at 6:45pm, Sharleen and I had Womens 3m Synchro. We both dove better than we did in Canada, Hui was happy this time! We came 3rd, behind the Russians - Yulia and Anastasia, who dove beautifully, in 2nd place was the Chinese - Li Ting and He Zi. So we got another funky glass trophy to join the one we got last year.

On the 12/5, Melissa and I had Womens 10m Synchro. Our event got underway at 3pm, just as the wind was really picking up! In 14 years of diving these were the worse diving conditions I have ever dived in, plus it was synchro so that made it even harder. We dove quite well, our synchro was a bit out, so our synchro scores were averaging 7.5's. It was so windy for inward and back twist that we had to stand down and wait until it was less windy. In the end we came 2nd, again behind the Chinese - Chen Roulin and Wang Xin. In 3rd place were the Canadian girls - Meghan and Roseline. So that was another heavy glass trophy to take home!
At the Sheraton, there were a few pools, one of pools had under water windows that can be seen from the Sheraton bar. I got Scotty to take a photo of Sharleen and me! This bar was where they shot a few scenes from the movie Anaylze This.

On the last night we had a cruise in a big yacht called Caprice, we cruised around the Ft Lauderdale area for a few hours. We had dinner on the yatch and just hung out with all the divers. It was lots of fun and I took heaps of photos. After the cruise lots of the divers headed down to the beach near the hotel, thats was heaps of fun too.

The third and unexpected stop in the tour of North America was a stop in Houston Texas. Our American Airlines plane from Ft. Lauderdale to LA was a dodgy one, so we had to stop and refuel in Houston. It added an extra 2 hours to our already 5 hour long flight, plus we had to stay on the plane and wait.
It was a good trip to Canada and USA, we had a week of winter, then a week of summer. My synchro results were pretty good, but my individual results need to improve.

Diving Grand Prix in Zhuhai, China - 07

On the 8th of April, the Australian team headed off to Zhuhai, China. The team included: Sharleen, Natasha, Melissa, Kathryn, Peter, Scott and me. Support staff included: Hui, Xiangning, Dr Song and Margaret. It was my fifth time to China and my second time to Zhuhai.We stayed at the Paradise Hill Hotel which was just down the road from where we stayed last year. The accommodation was good, I roomed with Tash and Mel, which was good fun. The food wasn't too bad either, I still haven't tried the chickens feet or pigeons head.

Both of my synchro events were on the 14th. First was 10m synchro with Mel, we both dove quite well to finish in 2nd place, behind the Chinese, and the Brits were in 3rd place. Next was the medal ceremony, after that was over Sharleen and I did one dive before we were kicked off the boards. It was the first time I had a one dive warm up. Sharleen dove really well, my diving felt good except for 205B which was over. We came 2nd, again behind Chinese and Russia was in 3rd. We won prize money for both of the synchro events, first place foreigner gets 4000 RMB to share, so in total I got 4000 RMB from the two events.

On the 16th we left China, via Macau to Hong Kong, where we had a whole day, before making our way to the airport in the evening. We all went shopping at Kowloon to a place called the Ladies Market, which sells pretty much everything. I bought all sorts of bits and pieces: iPod socks, headbands, shoes, tops, handbag. Then I went and got a manicure, only to find that I couldn't find my wallet. Lucky I had prize money in my bag, otherwise I would have been in a bit of bother. Very annoying but there was nothing I could do about it, so I tried to enjoy myself again. At a place called Mong Kok I had my first Krispy Kreme Doughnut - a glazed doughnut with chocolate icing and sprinkles, it was very sweet but really good! At 8pm we caught the train to the airport and looked around all the duty free shops there, Sharleen and I both bought some really nice sunglasses! The flight back wasn't too bad, got on and had some supper then slept until breakfast.

All in all it was a great trip. The preparation for this competition was very average, as I was ill and coming off such a big competition, I'm really happy with the results.

12th FINA World Championships 2007 - Melbourne

The World Championships were held in Melbourne from the 17th of March to the 1st of April. The diving program was from the 19th to the 26th of March. There was over 200 divers competing from 40 countries. The Australia Diving team was: Alex Croak, Peter Hill, Grant Nel, Scott Robertson, Sharleen Stratton, Melissa Wu and me.

The pool looked fantastic! Heaps of seating and lots of blue and pink. Training was very crowded most of the time, but it was great catching up with the other divers from all over the world. We stayed at Oaks on Market St, the accommodation was good. I got the welcome board changed from 'Oaks Welcomes Athletes for the World Swimming Championships' to '12th FINA World Championships' - much better!


My first event was Women's 10m Synchro with Melissa. After prelims in the morning we were 2nd, in the finals we dove really well to finish in 2nd place. The Chinese girls: Jia Tong and Chen Ruolin won with 361.32 points. Melissa and I came 2nd, with a score of 324.00 points. The girls from Germany: Annett Gamm and Nora Subschincki finished in 3rd with 306.63 points.

My next event was the Women's 3m Springboard, there was 40 girls in the event. At the preliminaries I didn't dive very well, and I scraped through to semi finals, which is top 18. I dove much better in the semi finals to move up to 10th place and into the finals. I dove pretty good in the finals except for my front 3.5 tuck, which was way over, so in the end I came 12th (again - like World Champs in 2005). The crowd were great, really supportive, hence the wave to the crowd after my final dive in the finals.

My final event was the Women's 3m Synchronised event. The Chinese girls: Wu Minxia and Guo Jingjing won the event with 355.80 points. In 2nd place was the German girls: Ditte Kotzian and Heike Fisher with 318.45 points. Sharleen and I won the bronze medal with 313.14 points.

I had a great time at World Championships! I had three goals going in to the meet: the medal in both of my synchro events and to final in my 3m event. To finish the biggest event of the year (and the biggest event before the Olympics), having achieved all my goals is a great feeling, and puts me in great stead for the rest of the year, heading in to 2008! And now the Olympics are less than 500 days away!

2007 National Championships

The AIS Diving team flew down to Melbourne for the National Championships on the 8th of January. Before competition started we had a few days of training. I competed in the Women's 3m event on Saturday the 13th, it was crucial for me to be placed in the top 2 with a score over 260 points in prelims and semis, and a score over 290 points in finals. My score in prelims was 277.80. Then in semis I scored 298.35 points. Then we had a few hours rest before finals. The finals were very stressful as my whole year was depending on my score and placing. In finals I dove really well and kept my cool as the points were close. I finished in 2nd place with a personal bests score of 334.95 points. That meant that I had secured my spot on the Australian World Championship Team.
On Sunday the 14th I had the Women's 1m event, after the prelims I was in 4th place, which was where I stayed after the final. Not a bad result considering that I have been training for 1m for 2 weeks. Finally it was time for my favourite event the Women's 3m Synchronised. Sharleen and I dove very well to 323.64 points, which beats our old national record by 2.43 points.
So Nationals this year was a success, I left with a gold medal, a silver medal and two personal best scores!
Some of us divers had professional photos taken by Robert Cianflone.