Swim England Cambridgeshire Diving Awards 2025
Three County Performance Awards were presented at the County Development Day recognising National Diving Performance at the 3 levels of the competition pathway.
The first level of competition is named Skills – because it concentrates on divers achieving excellent skills and techniques.
Five Cambridge Dive Team divers qualified for National Skills all producing fine results. In the younger age groups where divers perform 12 skills with 4 from poolside, 4 from 1m and 4 from 3m Yuzu Baxendale took 7th and Karina Baxendale 4th place.
Older age group divers have a 1m and a 3m competition. Eva Tsang took a 4th and a 7th place whilst Jack Halls was 6th in both events. But the star competitor in 2025 was Will Tibbatts with a 5th place on 3m and a silver on 1m and is awarded the Skills Performance Award.
The next level up is for Age Group divers who can choose to compete in 1m, 3m and platform.
Five Cambridge Dive Team qualified for these championships. Three girls in group C (12/13 years) Sophia Howard, Florence Tibbatts and Hallie Cave all achieved great results in their competitions. Toby Fayomi in group B took a very commendable 7th place on 3m. The only CDT boy was Ryan Church but he did not disappoint with a 10th place on platform and bronze medals on both 1m on 3m and is a worthy winner of the Age Group Performance Award.
The final level is for Elite divers. This trophy, given by the County, was being presented for the first time. The County are working hard to involve all aquatic sports and realise that diving in Cambridgeshire, although confined to one club, is at the highest level.
Several Cambridgeshire Dive Team divers have entered events that are aimed at divers approaching elite standard and showed they will be ready for junior elites early next year. At the Junior Elite Championships in 2025 Finn Macfarlane took 16th place on both 1m and 3m and followed this up in London in November with a very commendable 8th on 1m. Daisy Halls dived her last year as a junior with 8th place on 3m and a magnificent bronze on 1m. Now diving as a senior, Daisy showed her intent by taking 4th place on 3m in London and wins the Elite Performance Award.
National Age Groups Performance Award
(Barbara Palmer Trophy)
Presented to the best performing Cambridgeshire diver at the National Age Group Championships
Winner: Rufus Bord
Cambridge Diving Team (CDT) had 8 divers competing across 15 events collecting 5 medals.
In group C (12/13 years) Ryan Church competed on all 3 boards achieving top 10 placings on each board. Tobi Fayomi flew the flag for the girls with a top 12 placing on 3m in group B.
But it was Boys group B (14/15 years) where CDT were really prominent.
Dominic Williams took silver on 1m just one point short of gold with Ben Matthams just outside the medals in 4th.
The platform event saw 2 CDT divers on the podium with Charles Tibbatts in bronze and Rufus Bord in silver.
Rufus and Charles teamed up take a magnificent silver medal in the group A/B 3m synchro event. On the 3m Rufus added another medal by winning his first National Age Group Championship gold medal and earns the NAGs performance award for 2024.
Skills Performance Award
Presented or the highest placed Cambridgeshire diver at the National Skills Championships.
Winner: Hallie Cave
Cambridge Diving Team had its largest entry to NSF for many years and there were some magnificent results.
All 6 entries were in the top 12 of their event – very commendable.
Florence Tibbatts took a silver medal in the C1 age group, but her brother William went one better to take gold in the newly introduced Group A event.
But this year’s winner of the NSF performance award goes to Hallie Cave for her victory in the D2 age group. Scoring 314 points she was a runaway winner in field of 28 divers.
