Twenty members of the Southampton Diving Academy excelled at the Queen's Golden Jubilee National Age Group Diving Championships held at the Leeds International Pool last week.

Coming back with a haul of three gold, four silver and ten bronze medals, the team compared favourably with the 17 other clubs taking part from all over the country.

Southampton was the largest group at the championships, demonstrating the high standards now being achieved here by a substantial number of youngsters.

Particularly successful were Natalie Hill (14) and Ciaran O'Reilly (13) who both came back with national titles.

Natalie's gold came on platform, where her massive score of 286.15 points earned her a place in the British team travelling to the Junior European Championships in July. Natalie also narrowly missed taking medals on the 1m and 3m boards, coming 4th in each case.

However, with partner Charley Tomkys a teammate from the Academy, she achieved a bronze medal in the 3m Synchro event.

Natalie was thrilled with the outcome of the competition. "I felt I dived well on the day and am really excited about going to the Europeans, but it's quite scary as well! I hope I'll be good enough there."

Prior to taking up diving less than two years ago, the talented youngster had taken a national title in gymnastics, so she is no stranger to high level competition.

She will now have the opportunity to train with the rest of the British team immediately prior to the contest, which is to be held in Geneva.

Coincidentally this is the same venue as fellow member of the Diving Academy, Pete Waterfield, the current holder of the European Highboard title, won his first Junior European crown.

Coach Lindsey Fraser was also delighted by Natalie's success. "This is an outstanding result for Natalie," she said.

"She is an extremely talented young lady, but this level of success would not be possible without an enormous amount of hard work and commitment, which she has demonstrated in abundance."

Ciaran's medal haul was even more spectacular. Taking golds on one metre and highboard, a bronze on three metre and a silver in the one metre synchro event, he was second in the medal table for the whole Championship.

Coach, Mark Alderman, was thrilled with his result. "Ciaran's outstanding talent was very apparent this week," he said. "He competed well and deserved this brilliant outcome."