THE coach of Team GB’s first ever Olympic diving gold medallists travelled to Southend to give advice to local up-and-coming coaches.

Adrian Hinchliffe, who led Jack Laugher and Chris Mears to gold at Rio 2016, ran a development camp which saw 25 diving coaches of all levels of experience flock to the Southend Diving Centre in Garon Park.

Southend Diving deputy head coach Bill Clark was pleased to see Hinchliffe play a leading role in the development camp, after originally contacting him six months ago.

Clark said: “I was delighted to have secured Ady because I knew that in the build-up to Rio he would be incredibly busy and travelling extensively with the GB Team - and concentrating on his medal winning objective.

“But he agreed that following Rio he would be delighted to come to Southend and share his experience and knowledge with coaches in the region. “When I heard from him in January that he was leaving to join the Aussie team I was worried he wouldn’t be able to honour that but with lots of emails, following up and organising we got it all together just in time.”

Hinchliffe, who is also the current head coach of Leeds Diving, will be moving to Brisbane next month after agreeing to become national diving coach for Australia.

After significant success in the sport, Clark says that Hinchliffe’s presentation at the Southend Diving Centre impressed the coaches who attended.

“Every coach there said they gained so much from Ady’s presentation,” added Clark.

“His enthusiasm and obvious passion for the sport was infectious and he gave practical advice on many aspects associated with coaching competitive divers - from the importance of working as a team to motivating divers and solving problems along the way.

“I’m sure the coaches will be employing these skills now themselves.”

The Southend Diving Programme provided young divers to take part in demonstrations.

Clark confirmed: “Southend Diving has a very successful history of producing Olympians and the current team are having success from novice events up to junior international level.

“We are looking to produce more Olympians and Ady’s contribution has inspired our team enormously.

“The young divers - all part of our national age group squads - were so keen and worked really hard but most importantly they enjoyed the experience.”