Tim Hardie prepares to dive 7.20PM: Sydney springboard diver Tim Hardie has stolen the show at the AsiaPacific Outgames diving competition, winning the judges over with an impressive repertoire and incredible smoothness to nab two golds. The 31-year-old may have been the only competitor in the 25-34 age group in the 1 and 3 metre springboard, but he won the crowd over with his somersault pikes, tucks and twists, nabbing 8.0 scores for one effort from two of the five judges from Wellington Diving. Hardie took out gold in the 3 metre with an overall score of 289.80, the highest score in the competition. He was also strong in the 1 metre springboard, grabbing a 269.55. Another Sydneysider, Kim Mo, took golds both the 3 metre and 1 metre springboard in the 45-54 group. Mo took silver in the platform in the same age group, a section which another Sydney diver won. James Hedding, 46, braved the 7.5 metre platform and pulled off two impressive dives from armstands which the crowd appreciated, while Mo stuck to the 5 metre platform and produced increasingly clean finishes. The entrants were all from Australia and were all male, until Deborah Hambly from Team Auckland Masters Swimmers (TAMS) joined at the novice springboard competition at the last minute and went on to impress with simple, clean dives and claim gold. In the men’s novice springboard, Christopher Parson from Sydney, via Petone, came back from one botched dive to nail a back somersault pike and claim gold, while his competitor Nicholas Pirie, 25, from Brisbane performed an incredibly clean inward dive tuck and won silver. Dive names such as the “armstand dive straight”, “back dive straight” and “forward dive tuck” had the glbt crowd giggling. GayNZ.com Daily News staff - 15th March 2011
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 15th March 2011 - 6:59pm