FINA Diving World Series - 3rd Leg - Nanjing, China

We left Mexico very early on the 9th of September, we flew to San Francisco and arrived at 10am. Our flight to Shanghai was delayed a few hours, so we caught the train to downtown San Francisco. We walked around for a few hours, checking out some of the local sights, it was a really fun day out, much better than sitting in the airport.

Finally our flight to Shanghai was boarded, and for some unknown reason the four of us were upgraded to business class. It was awesome, I could lie almost flat and I had prawns for dinner! We arrived in Shanghai, and then were taken by bus to Nanjing which took 5 hours. We arrived at the Jiangsu Zixin International Hotel at 1am. The hotel was very nice, I shared a room with Sharleen up on the 21st floor. The food in the hotel was pretty average, I ate lots of fried rice, bok choy and watermelon.

The pool at Nanjing was fantastic, one of the best pools I have ever dived at. The pool was almost brand new and it was clean! The springboards were good and the platform was nice too, I'm getting use to the bamboo matting platform surface. The first photo is of the pool from the lift in the hotel. The fourth photo is of Melissa doing a back twist off 5m, while I was standing on 10m platform. Dad took some fast speed photos of Sharleen and I doing synchro, the three photos are of the same dive.

We went shopping a few times in Nanjing, at the markets we bought DVD's, wallets, belts and some Chinese souvenirs. We also went to the supermarket to stock up on some food, I bought some lollies and biscuits.

On the 15th of September, Sharleen and I had 3m synchro. Sharleen and I dove really well, didn't miss a dive. The Chinese and Russian pairs also dove really well and didn't miss a dive either. We came 3rd behind the Chinese and Russian pairs, but we score 317 points which is an international PB score for us! We were awarded with a beautiful glass trophy.

On the 16th of September, Melissa and I had 10m synchro. Our first three dives - inward dive, reverse dive and front 3.5 were excellent and we were actually in the lead. Next dive was inward 3.5, I was a tad short but Melissa was way over. Our final dive was back twist, we nailed it, to finish with 340 points and in 2nd place, just 12 points behind the Chinese!

That night was the farewell dinner, which included traditional Chinese entertainment of musical performances, dancing and singing. Sharleen and I got into the Chinese spirit and ate cake with chopsticks! The Australian Team (L-R) : me, Sharleen, Melissa and Xiangning.

On the 17th of September we had another early start at 5am, getting a bus to the Nanjing train station, and then caught the bullet train to Shanghai train station, which took only 2 hours! Then it was an hour bus ride to the Shanghai Airport, where I said goodbye to dad, as he was on his way home to Melbourne. We flew to Singapore and then to Brisbane. I was so excited about being back to Australia - good food and clean air!
It was a great trip, very long and very tiring, but I learnt a lot and produced some great results too. We got two silver medals and two bronze, which resulted in us getting third place overall in both the synchro events!

FINA Diving World Series - 2nd Leg - Mexico City, Mexico

On Monday the 3rd of September, we left Sheffield on the bus to Manchester, then flew to London Heathrow, to Washington DC, and finally onto Mexico City. As the second leg of the World Diving Series was held in Mexico City. We arrived at the Radisson Hotel at 11pm, this time I shared a room with Melissa. The Radisson in Mexico City is 5 stars, it was very nice and the food was pretty good too, though we didn't eat any Mexican food, which was disappointing.
We competed at the Alberca Olímpica Francisco Márquez Pool which was built 40 years ago for the 1968 Olympic Games. It hasn't had much work done on it since then!

The altitude in Mexico City is 2240 metres, and you could really feel it while climbing the stairs to 10m, I would get to the top puffing and panting! Mexico City was so busy, lots of people, cars and traffic jams. The population of Mexico City is higher than the entire population of Australia, over 25 million people!!
On the 5th of September, all the divers and coaches were invited to go on a bus tour of Mexico City. It went for 2 hours, but it was heaps of fun as we got to sit on an open top double decker bus. We drove past heaps of significant buildings and statues, such as the Mexico City Cathedral (far below right), National Palace, the Palace of Fine Arts (below right) and the Angel of Independence (far below centre).

On the 7th of September, we had nothing to do in the morning and we were bored. So Sharleen, Mel, dad and me got in a taxi and drove back to the Mexico City Square to have a look around. We went to the markets, looked at some Aztec ruins and looked in Mexico City Cathedral (left) and the National Palace (centre). It was great to get out of the hotel and enjoy some Mexican culture. Below is dad and me in the courtyard of the Mexican National Palace, and us girls at the markets.

That afternoon Sharleen and I had 3m synchro. The crowd was huge and very vocal! We dove really well and had very good synchro, even on back 2.5, we were synchro over and synchro splashy! We came second behind the Chinese and in front of the Russian pair. We were awarded with beautiful and big medals, then it was off to do a TV interview with Fernando Platas, then to the press conference which took a while and most questions were asked in Spanish then an interpreter said the question in English, which was then translated into Chinese, then back to English and finally Spanish.

On the 8th of September, Melissa and I were final event with the 10m synchro. We had a lot of sitting around time, before our event got underway. Our inward and reverse dives were pretty good, and then on front and inward I went over. It was very close between 3rd and 6th going into the last round, we had back twist, usually a very good dive for us. Mine felt really good but Mel's was short and the synchro was out. So we finished 6th, which was disappointing, neither of us dove great.
That night was the farewell dinner, we were all so tired, and food didn’t start until 9:45pm, the food was delicious but I just wanted to go to bed. Finally I got back to my room at 11:30pm, with my alarm set for 3:18am - Yuk!

FINA Diving World Series - 1st Leg - Sheffield, England

For the first time FINA organised a Diving World Series, where over three weeks and in three countries where the 8 best individual divers and the 6 best synchro teams compete. Sharleen, Melissa and I were invited to compete in the Diving World Series. I competed in the Women's 3m Synchronised event with Sharleen and the Women's 10m Synchronised event with Melissa.
The first of three competitions was held in Sheffield, England on the 1st and 2nd of September. We left on Wednesday morning, flying to Bangkok, then onto Frankfurt and finally to Manchester, then it was a 90 minute bus ride to Sheffield. We arrived at the Novotel at 1am, and I went straight to bed. It took us 35 hours from Brisbane to Sheffield! The Novotel was very nice, I had a room to myself which had a lovely view of the of English countryside.

The competition was being held at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, which was a nice 10 minute walk from the hotel. The pool was nice, the springboards weren't too bad and the 10m platform was good, there was a small dryland which had trampolines, dryboards and mats.

The food at the Novotel was simply excellent, I have never eaten so well on a diving trip. Lunch and dinner were three courses and we had a choice of three for each. We were eating prawn salad, lamb steak, salmon, chocolate brownie, fruit salad, lemon tart - it was exceptional food.
Sharleen and I managed to fit in some shopping, we went to Primark where I bought a few tops, shorts and skirts, and then it was off to Top shop and H&M for more retail therapy. We also went for a great walk around the street of Sheffield, we found the Millennium Gardens which was a huge indoor garden, with plants from all over the world, it was beautiful.

We also found the Sheffield City Town Hall, which was amazing and truly massive. We also came across other iconic English things such as black cab and red telephone boxes.

On the 1st of September, Sharleen and I had the Women’s 3m synchro event. There were 6 teams and we dove in reverse order of placings from World Championships, so there was: Great Britain, Russia, Ukraine, Australia, Germany and China. The competition started at 3pm, after the Opening Ceremony. Our inward dive, reverse dive and back twist were good. My back 2.5 felt good, Sharleen was over and then on our last dive which was front 2.5 with 1 twist, mine again felt good, Sharleen's legs were a bit bent at the end. We finished a disappointing 5th, we were only 1.5 points from 3rd place, very frustrating.
The next day Melissa and I had 10m synchro, again there were 6 teams: Great Britain, Russia, Canada, Germany, Australia and China. Our first two dives inward and reverse were ok but not great. Our front 3.5 wasn't great either, our synchro was a bit out and mine was over. We needed to do two good dives to get into the medals, next was inward 3.5, we both did good dives and had good synchro. Our last dive was back 2.5 with 1.5 twist, we both did good dives and had good synchro! China won then Canadian and us in 3rd place.

The next day at 4:45am we were up and on a bus back to Manchester, now heading to Mexico, for the second stop in the World Diving Series.

Diving Grand Prix in Rostock, Germany - 07

On the 17th of June the Australian Diving Team was off to Deutschland. The team included: Sharleen, Melissa, Peter and me. Graeme Rose came along as the new High Performance manager, and Hui Tong. It was a massive journey to get to Rostock - flight to Singapore, then to Paris, another flight to Berlin and a three hour bus ride to Rostock! Rostock is up the top of Germany on the Baltic Sea, and was founded in the 11th century.

The competition was held at the Neptun pool, there was a good dryland area, and the pool was really nice too. The 3m springboards were nice and bouncy but really close together, which made me feel like I was diving on top of Sharleen in the synchro event. The platform was weird, there were wooden slats on top of the concrete, the surface on the platform was a bit slippery and scary.

My first event was Women's 3m springboard on the 23rd of June, there were 28 girls in the event and after the prelims I was in 11th place. In the semi finals I dove ok, my back 2.5 was short. All in all I finished 10th, which is ok, but not great. A few hours later Melissa and I teamed up for the Women's 10m Synchronised event, there were 10 teams in the event. We didn't dive the best, our synchro was a little off and my inward 3.5 was over. We finished a disappointing 4th place, we did get a cool chammy, a certificate and a long stemmed red rose for our efforts.
On the 24th of June Sharleen and I had the Women's 3m Synchro, again there were 10 teams in the event. We both dove very well to finish in 2nd place behind Guo Jingjing and Wu Mingxia. We received a certificate, rose and prize money, but no medal which was disappointing.

We got to go out and see a few things in Rostock. We went to Neuer Markt (L), Kröpeliner Straße (R) and we even went to an Aldi Supermarket. The buildings were beautiful and colourful and very old. I caught Wu Minxia and Zhou Luxin at the supermarket with a trolley full of lollies and chocolates!! I bought a few tops from a shop called H&M, and of course some chocolates. The bottom right photo is of the Warnow River, with some hot air balloons in the background.

On the 25th of June, we left Germany, via Paris and Singapore. Peter and I enjoyed a foot massage at Singapore airport, it was fantastic! We arrived back on Wednesday morning of the 27th.

It was a fun and quick trip. I was very happy with some of my diving, but I still need to work on consistency. Hopefully Melissa, Sharleen and me will hopefully be off to England, Mexico and China in September for the FINA World Diving Series.