December 4th 2008
Ollie Piper, aged 8, has clinched a silver medal in the Irish Open Diving Championships.
The Plymouth College Preparatory School pupil was leading the 8/9 age group up to the 11th dive but just lost out on the gold medal by 0.15 points with his final dive.
Ollie, who has been diving for two years, is one of only two eight-year-olds in Plymouth Diving’s elite diving squad. He trains five days a week, completing about 20 hours of diving and gymnastics sessions.
This was only the second main competition for the young diver, who can boast Olympic stars Tom Daly and Tonia Couch as team-mates.
“This is a tremendous achievement”, said Headmaster, Chris Gatherer. “We are all very proud of Ollie”.
