Diving Grand Prix in Madrid, Spain

After Perth I was heading off to Madrid to compete at the Spanish Grand Prix event. Other team members included: Anabelle, Olivia, Rachel, Jaele, Ethan, Kate, Hui and Jinlan. We found out on the plane trip over that Spain had won the World Cup, which was really exciting as everyone was in a good mood.

The pool here is unique as it has a glass dome over the diving pool, which can make diving interesting at certain parts of the day when the sun is shining in your face!

We had training Monday to Thursday, competition was Friday to Sunday. On Thursday we had the morning off training to look around the city. We went to Gran Via which is a famous street in Madrid, the buildings in and around the street were beautiful. I only bought a few souvenirs.

Friday was my big day of diving! At 10am I had 3m prelims, I did four good dives and one really lousy one, but I finished in 7th place, with 278 points, so I made it through to semi's. Semi's were at 1pm, six divers in each semi with top three going through to finals. I did five decent dives to finish in 2nd place, with 300 points, and therefore make finals. I was able to have some lunch and relax before heading back to the pool at 4pm. Finals for 3m were at 6pm, I was diver number one of the six girls. I dove quite well scoring 311 points and finishing in 5th place.

I had 30 minutes to get myself psyched up for 10m synchro with Anabelle. We only had 15 minutes of training which was only enough time for 3 dives off 10m. Competition started at 8pm and there were 6 teams and we were number 2 after the Ukraine girls. Anabelle and I were a little bit off with our diving, needing to be cleaner on the water., however we did hit all our dives. We won the competition scoring 308 points, 13 points clear on 2nd place Canadian and France in third.

On Saturday I caught the bus and headed out to the city center. I went all over central Madrid including Puerta Del Sol, Plaza Mayor and the very beautiful Parque del Retiro. I had an awesome day out and about, and I finally had my chocolate con churro! And I also found the most amazing Spanish deli.

On Sunday we watched the Women's 10m event, as Anabelle had made the finals. After the diving was over we had a few hours to wait. So Rachel and I headed to the Parque del Retiro, we hired a row boat, which was so much fun!

Commonwealth Games Trials

On the 8^th I had 3m, there were 6 girls invited to compete in this event. We had preliminaries and finals, do 5 dives each time, however the scores for all ten dives count towards the end result. After preliminaries I was in 2^nd place with a score of 338.85. I was very happy with my finals, scoring 70+ points on each dive for a new PB score of 365.20! My total score for prelims and finals was 704.05, Sharleen was in 2^nd place with 703.80 – a very close result with only 0.25 being the difference.

The team was officially announced on the 9^th. The Australian team will consist of 12 divers - 7 girls and 5 boys. Team members include: Bree Cole, Sharleen Stratton, Anabelle Smith, Olivia Wright, Jaele Patrick, Alex Croak, Melissa Wu, Ethan Warren, Grant Nel, James Conner, Matthew Mitcham and Scott Robertson.

World Cup in Changzhou, China

On the 27th of May the Australian team departed for China for the Diving World Cup. I will be competing in the Women's 3m Synchronised with Sharleen.

The 2010 World Cup was held at Changzhou, China. Changzhou is known as the ‘city of dragons’, it has a population of 3.6 million. Changzhou is located right on the Yangtze River, halfway between Shanghai and Nanjing.

There are 140 divers competing from 26 countries. Those countries are: Austria, Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Cuba, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Ukraine, USA.

The pool at Changzhou was good, until one of the 3m boards was out of action due to the board not being secure to the concrete base - bit of a worry.

I was very excited to get a photo with Dmitry Sautin, who I think is such an amazing diver, with a phenomenal list of achievements and results.

We are staying at the Warrdo Hotel, which is a 15 minute walk from the pool. I’m on the 8^th floor but every morning I’m woken by the sound of car horns honking at each other – and it doesn’t stop for the entire day!

I was yet again selected to represent Australia in the Opening Ceremony!

Day 1 of competitions was the preliminaries for all four of the synchronised events. The women’s 3m event was held at 4:30pm, there were 11 teams in the competition, and Sharleen and I were number 5 after the Korean pair. We dove well and our synchronisation was also good. We finished the preliminaries in 2^ndplace with 309.81 points. Then we had to wait until Sunday for the final.

Finally Sunday arrived, and I was feeling really nervous. My competition didn’t go so well, I could have done much better reverse dive and back 2.5 pike. Sharleen and I finished in 4^th place, only 3 points off a silver medal and 2 points off a bronze medal.

Sian (our biomechanics) and I were fascinated by all the sleeping Chinese people. So we started taking photos of all the sleeping Chinese people we could find. It was a fun hobby and we got some great photos. Here are a handful of our favourites!

Next I’m off to Perth to compete in the Commonwealth Games trials, where I will be trying to earn myself spots in the 3m event, 3m synchronised event and the 10m synchronised event. Following that I will be heading off to Madrid for the Spanish Grand Prix event along with Ethan, Anabelle, Jaele, Rachael, Olivia and Scott.

Diving Prix in Montreal, Canada

On the 25^th of April I was off to Montreal for the Canada Cup. This will be my fifth time to Montreal and fourth time competing in the Canada Cup. Competition was fierce this year with lots of teams using this event as final selection and preparation for World Cup in China in June. Countries competing included: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Iran, Macau, Malaysia, Puerto Rico, Russia, Sweden, USA, and Venezuela.

The second day we were in Montreal, the weather took a turn for the worst and it snowed the whole day - from sun up to sun down. It was truly strange as they are only a few weeks away from summer there. The next day and for the rest of the week the weather was thankfully back to sunshine and blue skies!

We had a few days of training before competition started. On one of those days we visited the headquarters of Cirque du Soleli. It was an awesome place, very fascinating, full of interesting people and all sorts of strange costumes and pieces of equipment. We were given a guided tour all over the HQ, we even met the second in charge of Cirque.

I only had one event at Canada Cup this year, Women’s 3m Synchro with Sharleen. Unfortunately the day before competition I got sick – so I took all sorts of vitamin and used throat gargle, anything to minimise the illness. When I woke up on competition day I felt even worse, feeling like I had no energy at all. Competition was tough, Sharleen and I dove well, except my last dive wasn’t the best. We came 3^rd behind China and Canada, scoring 309.78.

The next day we were off home. It took four painful flights and 30 hours to get back to sunny Brisbane.

Next competition is World Cup in China from June 2^nd to the 6^th.