Young divers head to Sandwell as venue hosts first Swim England national event

Around 170 athletes from 20 clubs are heading to the Sandwell Aquatics Centre for the Swim England Diving National Age Group Championships.

The four-day competition marks the first Swim England national event to be held in the Birmingham based arena, build ahead of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Since the Games the venue, which staged more medal moments than any other during the Birmingham, has been converted into a state-of-the-art community leisure centre for Sandwell and the wider West Midlands region.

It now boasts 1,000 seats, a 50m Olympic-sized swimming pool, a 10m high dive tower, a 25m dive pool and a smaller community swimming pool.

And this week it will host the country’s top young divers who will battle it out for medals across four different age groups from the 1m and 3m springboard plus the 10m platform.

Divers from 9-18 years old will be competing in Birmingham where there will also be synchronised events from the 1m and 3m boards.

The action gets underway at around 1:30pm on Thursday 27 June with the competition ending on Sunday. Tickets are still available to purchase on venue and if you can’t make it to Sandwell, every dive will be live streamed on Swim England’s YouTube channel.

Defending champions return

A number of winners from last year’s competition in Sheffield are looking to defend their crowns in 2024.

Amongst those are Southend Diving’s Sadie Stratford who took three medals from her four events in 2023.

She won gold in the Female Group B 3m event, silver in the Group B 1m as well as gold in the Group A/B 3m event alongside Rain Downer who will also compete in Sandwell.

The duo will join forces once again as well as each taking on each of the three individual events in Birmingham.

Last year’s top club, Plymouth Diving Club have 15 athletes entered as they look to continue their form from last year.

They won 17 medals across the four days which saw them finish ahead of City of Sheffield and Southend to give them the Dawdon Shield Trophy.

This year they’ll take on a number of clubs for the honour, including home town club Sandwell whose divers will look to impress in their home pool.

Event imagery will be provided by Will Johnston Photography and you can find more information about the competition available on the event webpage.