Southend Diving win Dawdon Shield Trophy for top club for first time ever

For the first time in the club’s history, Southend Diving were crowned as the top club and awarded the Dawdon Shield Trophy at the GoCardless Swim England Diving National Age Group Championships 2024.

The club has shown a brilliant level of consistency throughout the four days of competition at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre, collecting a total of 20 medals.

Their athletes were on top form and racked up a points total of 251.00 to earn the trophy.

Southend have shown steady progress over recent years – finishing sixth at the National Age Group Championships in 2022 and then third in 2023.

This year, they were the standout performers and moved up another two places in the leaderboard to take the top spot.

Their overall medal count was made up of seven golds, eight silvers and five bronze medals.

Southend Diving coach, James Hadley, explained that he felt ‘overwhelmed’ as his club was announced as the winners and expressed how proud he was of everyone involved.

He said: “This is something that we’ve been striving towards for a long time. We know we have a great team of divers and we’ve done really well in all the competitions this season but had no team trophies.

I’m so proud of everyone involved with the club

“As this competition has gone on, it started to seem more and more likely that we would win the team trophy, but I can’t quite believe that we’ve won this for the first time.

“I feel a bit overwhelmed. Every single medal is really special for that child and the coach and the club. I think we’ve won 20 in this competition and that’s double our previous best – our best ever before was 10.

“I’m just so proud of everyone involved at the club, not just myself and Sasha Brook and Olivia Blower who are here – but all of the coaches back at home who have helped these divers through various stages of their development.

“And there’s all the volunteers, our chaperones who have helped make these trips possible – it’s a complete club effort and I’m so proud of everyone.

“The quality of the divers we have at Southend is something that we’ve been working really hard on and they should all be really proud of themselves for that.

“We can see the progression across the whole club. Last year was our best ever year at National Skills Finals and several of those divers have moved up into this team – the age group team – and have contributed to this win.

“We’ve also had our club’s best ever win at junior elites this year so it really feels like we’re starting to hit our purple patch and I hope that can last as long as possible.”

Hadley also made it two trophies for his club as he was awarded the Margaret Davies Trophy as the top coach of the competition.

However, he was quick to recognise that although it was his name on the trophy, the accolade and praise should be shared with all of the coaches at Southend – particularly Sasha Brook (pictured).

“It’s hard to hear my name among the other coaches that I’ve heard win it in the past or other coaches that were close to winning it this year, and imagine myself on their level,” said Hadley.

“I wasn’t a diver, I was a lifeguard who got interested in the sport by watching it and it’s been 12 years of learning more and more about this sport as I go – but I didn’t ever think I’d get to this part.

“Every single diver that I’ve ever coached has been a better diver than me and I just can’t quite believe it. It hasn’t sunk in yet.

“Myself and Sasha have worked together on our squad all year and she’s such an incredible coach.

“She’s got such a fire in her at the moment. She’s only been coaching a few years but I know that she’s got a really bright future ahead of her and I wouldn’t be surprised if she wins this trophy one day.”

On his embrace with last year’s winner, Fito Gutierrez of Plymouyth Diving Club, Hadley added: “I was really proud and happy for Fito last year and I made sure I gave him a big congratulations last year and he repaid the favour today.

“All weekend he’s been saying ‘it’s going to be you, your guys have looked really good, really nice stuff’ and that’s one thing I really love about diving is that it always seems to be really supportive and friendly competition.”

Pictures: Will Johnston Photography