Diving Ōtākou athletes Flynn MacGill-Brown, Archie Vorgers and Elizabeth Dearden all represented New Zealand at the Australian School Games in Adelaide last week.
They were part of a seven-strong Kiwi team, coached by Diving Ōtākou head coach Connie Deighton.
They were successful too.
MacGill-Brown won bronze in the 17 to 19-year-old platform event and then teamed up with Vorgers to win silver in the synchronised event for the same age group.
MacGill-Brown’s results were even more impressive considering he broke his leg last year and was on a diving hiatus due to the injury when Deighton arrived in Dunedin in November.
"It was quite actually emotional for myself," Deighton said.
"When I came here, he was not diving so to see how far he’s come in just a short space of time was pretty amazing really."
Arna Kovaleski, of Hamilton, also won bronze in the team event.
Dearden placed 11th in a highly competitive springboard event and learnt a lot from the experience, Deighton said.
Being able to coach at an international competition was amazing for her, and she took pride in seeing her divers perform against nearly 300 Australian competitors, she said.
"Seeing the divers hold the flag on our opening and closing ceremony and them being really proud in their New Zealand uniforms, and myself, obviously, in the New Zealand uniform was pretty cool.
"It was really great to meet all the coaches from Australia. Some of them knew me as a diver in Great Britain."
There is no rest for the Dunedin crew, who will line up for the South Island schools competition at Moana Pool next month.
Deighton said she also planned to take a group to the Gold Coast next year to give them a taste of diving outdoors.
