A DIVING star of the future won gold in her first ever national competition.

Ten-year-old Abby Rust, from Hadleigh, was part of a 17 strong Southend Diving team that returned home from the National Diving Skills Finals at the London Aquatics Centre last weekend.

And they secured an impressive stash of gold, silver and bronze medals.

Abby, who attends West Leigh Junior School, has long been earmarked as a bright prospect, having been selected for British Diving’s Talent Identification (TID) programme through school when she was just eight.

And head coach Shân Veasey was full of praise for Abby and the rest of the team, after triumphing in the 10-11 age group.

“It is great to see that the funding received from our governing body, Swim England, is supporting Southend’s local young people to achieve success in sport,” she said.

“As well as young Abby’s success, a number of the team have also come through the local talent search and Southend Diving is thrilled to be in a position to make sporting success an option for so many.

“My thanks go to coaches James and Becky for their work in preparing this young team for the event.”

But Abby was not the only success story from the weekend.

Thirteen-year-old Olivia Capon, from Southend, won silver in the girls 12-13 age group, scoring a huge score of 314.95.

She also secured two poolside 10 out of 10 scores from the judges.

The club also had three bronze medallists.

Noah Allende, 12, from Southend, was competing in the boys 11-12 C1 age group, and achieved his highest ever competition score.

In a high standard of competition, 14-year-old Jessica Burt, from Upminster, took third place in the girls 14-15 age group B+.

And Violet Clark, 12, from Rayleigh, won bronze in the girls C1 11-12 age group, to round off Southend Diving’s fine weekend.

To top off a fantastic weekend, the youngsters watched Tom Daley become World Champion in Budapest - a moment all of the divers in attendance were inspired by.