Sandwell stars shine at national diving finals
Sandwell Diving Club delivered a remarkable performance at the 2025 National Skills Finals held in Southend, Essex, last month – emerging as the most successful club both in medal count and overall performance.
The team of 18 talented divers secured an impressive haul of four gold, three silver and one bronze medal, plus nine Top 5 and 13 Top 10 finishes, which is all the more remarkable given Sandwell Diving is the newest club nationally, having only started a competitive team 18 months ago.
Sandwell’s Makayla Radbourne was one of the most successful divers at the Finals, securing a gold medal in the Female Group A 3metre event (ahead of her teammate Sophie Ragab) and silver in the Female Group A 1metre.
The leading Sandwell boy was Cooper Chilton, who won the Open Group B event by achieving the biggest score during the Finals after racking up almost 350 points.
Other Sandwell golds included Stella Stant in the Female Group B category and Grace Young in the Female Group C2, while Alexandra Thompson landed silver in Female Group C1 and Kaleb Weston secured bronze in the Open Group E event.
Head Diving Coach, Nigel Mills, said: “I couldn’t be more delighted; each and every one of our 18 amazing divers did us and themselves very proud. We set our target for this year of having 12 divers qualify, which was double last year’s total, so the results from the 2025 Finals have by far exceeded what we thought we would achieve.”
Other notable performances were from Ted Bone, who just missed out on a medal in 4th, plus Tommy Stubbs in 6th position, while the other Sandwell divers representing the club with distinction were Lois Wilkinson, Leo Thompson, Khushi Chahal, Eden Beresford, Bella-Grace Oakes, Indie Ashurst, Lola Thompson, Emily Dunn and Millie-Rose Lawley.
Sandwell Diving Club is based at the £60million Aquatics Centre in Smethwick, built specifically for the 2022 Commonwealth Games and one of eight facilities maintained and run by Sandwell Leisure Trust (SLT) on behalf of Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council.
For further information visit: slt-leisure.co.uk/divinglessons
