Year 9 Columba College student Elizabeth Dearden is forging her way in the world of springboard diving, and her recent results are a reflection of the work she is putting in to achieve her sporting goals.

Over the first week of the school holidays, Elizabeth Dearden travelled to Auckland to compete at the two day Merv Campbell Invitational Diving Championships with fellow competitive members of Diving Otakou. Elizabeth performed extremely well and placed in the top 10. A great result for our Year 9 Columba student!

Following this two day invitational event, Elizabeth participated in a couple of days of age-group training with coaches from Diving New Zealand. This was a wonderful opportunity for Elizabeth and involved training in dry land skills, seminars and pool springboard coaching. 

Elizabeth ended the week competing for Columba College at the National Secondary Schools Diving Championships, participating in the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard sections. She placed 5th overall out of a group of 17 divers, which was a very impressive result, and her efforts saw Columba College place 10th out of 25 schools. Well done, Elizabeth!

Elizabeth is now training hard to represent New Zealand and Columba College at the Australian Schools Games in Brisbane in November. She has made a great start towards fundraising for her fare by holding a bake sale at school in the last week of Term 3, so thank you to everyone who bought a cupcake, cookie or piece of slice. It is always admirable and very humbling to see our sporting stars working so hard to achieve their goals, especially when involved in sports that are self-funded. The extra work to fundraise and self-manage training, travelling, and their support network makes their achievements even more special. 

Congratulations, Elizabeth, we look forward to following your progress over the months ahead.