A SOUTHAMPTON boy has won gold at national diving competition.

Oliver Wignall, 11, was crowned as the 2018 Talent Games champion in November after coming second and fourth in two competitions.

Oliver is part of the Southampton Diving Academy (SDA) from which a total off 11 divers- six girls and five boys- were chosen to take part in the weekend of physical testing and diving.

Mollie James the SDA coach said: “Our divers performed to expectations and were mixing with some of the nation’s most talented divers. It was a great experience for all involved!”

The 2018 Talent Games was held in Leeds, and attended by more than 50 young divers aged 11-years-old and under from diving clubs all across England and Scotland.

The games are organised by the Swim England Talent programme each year to identify potential future diving champions.

The first day of the games was to physical test the competitors by demonstrating their strength, flexibility and stamina in a variety of different disciplines.

On the second day the children moved into the pool to demonstrate their diving skills for the judges, with all divers doing the same 12 dives, four each on the 1m and 3m springboards and 5m platform.

The eight highest scoring divers on each board progressed to a knockout round until there was only one diver remaining.

Oliver was able to make it through two of these final rounds coming second in the physical testing and fourth pool diving skills which gave him the gold medal overall and saw him crowned as the 2018 Talent Games champion.

The other divers selected from SDA were, Natalie Barr, Hana Cheung, Imogen Fitzsimmons, Luke Hardy, Elizabeth Hart, Reuben Havenga, Euan Powell, Evie Tierney, Megan Thorpe and Malachy Walsh.