A young diver from Leeds is hot on the heels of wonderkid Tom Daley
after making history at the British Gas National Diving Cup last
weekend.
City of Leeds diver Alicia Blagg performed superbly at
the event in Sheffield to become the youngest-ever double English
National Champion at just 13 years of age.
The young star from
Woodlesford in Leeds only missed out on breaking World Champion Daley’s
overall record for youngest-ever English National Champion, which he set
in 2007 during his meteoric rise to glory, by a matter of weeks.
Alicia
continued the form which saw her impress at the CAMO Invitational event
in Montreal before Christmas as she headed a field including Olympian
Hayley Sage in the both the preliminaries and the final to clinch
victory in the Women’s 1m Springboard event.
After achieving
individual glory, Alicia then teamed up with City of Leeds clubmate
Rebecca Gallantree to also win the Women’s 3m Synchronised event to
complete a dream double.
Alicia is part of Leeds City Council’s
Diving Training Scheme based at the Aquatics Centre at the John Charles
Centre for Sport, and is coached by Edwin Jongejans, who is himself a
former world champion.
Alicia first served notice of her talent
with a fifth-place finish at the age of just 12 in the British
Championship last year, and her achievement is also notable as she is
the first diver selected by British Diving for their Talent
Identification Scheme who has gone on to become a senior national
champion. The scheme was set up in 2002 to identify potential star
divers at the 2012 Olympic Games with Alicia being selected for it in
2004.
Alicia’s success was the highlight of a stunning event for
the City of Leeds female squad, as they dominated the competition by
winning of all of the disciplines.
Olympian Rebecca Gallantree
continues to go from strength to strength after her appearance in
Beijing as apart from teaming up with Alicia to win she also claimed
victory in the Women’s individual 3m Springboard event and together with
Southampton’s Stacie Powell also won the Women’s Platform Synchronised
title to secure an impressive three gold medals.
City of Leeds
also claimed a 1-2 finish in the Women’s Platform event as Helen
Galashan put in a stunning performance in the final to rise from sixth
place in the preliminaries to take the title, while clubmate Sarah
Barrow showed she is on her way back after a lengthy back injury by
taking second place in her first competitive appearance in a year.
Other
notable performances saw Suzanne Collins and Jenny Cowen claim silver
medals in the Women’s Platform Synchro while 14-year-old Hannah Starling
earned a bronze medal in the Women’s 3m Syncho.