The 2010 Speedo Junior Nationals were held July 8th to July 11th, 2010, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Kitchener Waterloo Diving Club had 6 divers, who having achieved National Qualifying scores, traveled to Winnipeg to compete against the best junior divers from across the country. It turned out, that our divers were the best junior divers from across the country!
Our D divers were represented by Nate Grobe and Ali Moussa of Waterloo and Andrew Pinney of Kitchener. D divers consist of any diver age 11 and under. For Ali and Andy, this was their first National competition. The field of divers was intense, but both placed top twelve in their division. Andy placed 4th on 3 meter, and Ali was 7th on the tower and 8th on the 1 meter. The impressive showing of this age category came from our very own Nate Grobe. Nate took Bronze on tower and the 3 meter, but it was 1 meter where the real battle took place. Nate fought an impressive battle, and on his last dive, passed the competition, to take gold in this category. He placed second overall in his age division. An impressive finish!
The B division with the divers at age 14 and 15, is always the most amazing to watch. With most of the divers “ripping” all their dives (no splash), it was a fierce battle to finals, and then to the medals there after. Brett Gillis saw finals for all his boards, placing 6th on 1 meter and 4th on tower, but 3 meter was the impressive board to watch. The top twelve on 3 meter went into finals with only 10 points dividing them, from first right down to 10th. Brett battled through finals, and took the bronze, only 11 points out of first place.
Our A diver was represented by C.J. Moore of Waterloo. A is the last division in juniors, spanning 16 to 18 year olds. C.J. placed 8th on the 3 meter. On tower, C.J. went into finals in 2nd place. He stayed 2nd for all of finals right up to his last dive. The top five divers were separated by only a 5 point spread before their last dive. C.J.’s last dive lacked a clean entry, so he finished in 4th on the tower.
Our C diver was Mohamed Moussa of Waterloo. Mohamed began diving at the National Level just this year. In an incredible tough age group – 12 and 13 years old – Mohamed worked incredibly hard to achieve his right to attend Nationals. He had the largest group to compete against, and placed 23rd on the 1 meter.
The placing of the divers earns points for the club, towards the overall placing in Canada. Our club was 7th in Canada with 111 points ( only 19 points out of the next place finish). Over the past three years our national standing has risen from 14th in 2008 to 10th in 2009, and we now stand 7th Nationally.
Those divers with top twelve placing have earned their right to attend the Camo International Invitational in November.
