Bronze leaves MacCrae doing somersaults (From Echo)

Bronze leaves MacCrae doing somersaults

9:00pm Tuesday 24th July 2012 in Other Sport By Paul Alton

A FAIRLY new dive in Alister MacCrae’s repertoire helped the teenager land a bronze medal at the ASA National Age Group Championships.

The 16-year-old Southend Diving member had not been performing the inward 2.5 somersaults dive for long.

But he included it in his optional dives at the Sheffield event and performed it so well that it earned him his highest individual dive score.

The dive also pushed MacCrae into the medals, enabling him to claim bronze in the 3m springboard in the 18 and under age group.

“Alister is a strong and determined diver who is a relatively late starter but has been showing signs in the last year of stepping up to the mark,” said coach Bill Clark.

“He is willing to learn new dives and to work harder. “He has lots of potential and, should he continue to improve his work rate, flexibility, and spotting techniques then he really does have an excellent chance of becoming a very good diver.”

The championships at Ponds Forge were MacCrae’s first national competition following a spell diving in East Region age group competitions which suggested to his coaches that he was ready for bigger events.

MacCrae started in the 1m springboard competition where he dived inconsistently and below his usual standard to finish well down the field. But he stepped things up on the 3m springboard, where he looked more determined as he dived more consistently in his required dives in the early rounds. That provided a solid platform for the voluntary dives, including the inward 2.5 somersaults.

Clark added that MacRae had also benefited from watching the GB Olympic team divers training at Garon Park last week in preparation for the London Games.