Making a splash

Gold medallist Molly Carlson says the secret to her success at the Ontario Provincial Diving Championships is sticking with her routine.

The 12-year-old Grade 7 Bishop Gallagher Senior Catholic Elementary student took first place in Group C girls at the provincial diving championships at the Canada Games Complex on Saturday. She carried on that winning streak the following day winning gold in all of her events.

But the biggest accomplishment for her this year she said was to beat her old score of 299.90 with 329.35. She said it’s important to have those personal challenges because it gives a greater sense of satisfaction when a competitor beats an old score and gives more motivation to improve.

She couldn’t have done as well as she did without following a strict routine, she said.

"I think if you’re in your bubble, you do better because you’re focused," Molly said on Sunday. "I’ve been working on all my dives with my coaches. I’m making sure I do them as best I can during the competition and I’m mentally preparing for my dives so I believe in myself and know that I can do it."

Molly said the next step for her is to compete in the national championships in July. She said she felt her chances were good and hoped to do well enough to go back onto the Canada diving team.

But Molly wasn’t the only the one to do well in her events.

Daniell Smith, 9, came in first on Saturday with 248.90 in Group E. The Grade 4 Saint Martin Catholic Elementary School student said she felt excited to have qualified for the first time at the provincial championships.

She said the large crowd didn’t bother her because she had experience performing in front of audience through her dancing.

Tiffany McLean, acting head coach with the Thunder Bay Diving Club, said the club members did well at the three-day competition with many provincial records broken and plenty of medals. She said she was happy to see so many of the club members were heading to Quebec for the national championships.

"It’s a great affirmation of how we have grown as a club over the past few years," McLean said. "We have 25 divers in this competition, which is a quarter of the divers out of the 11 teams that are here. We have a huge crowd of younger divers, ready to come up. Many the teams in Ontario have a big crowd of older divers that are getting ready to move on to the next level. Somehow we gathered all these seven-year-olds out of no where and its been great."

To help prepare her team, McLean said they would go to the competition in Winnipeg for a chance to practice some more before the nationals.

Final results for the competition weren’t readily available prior to publication. For more information go to the Integrated Sports Systems Live Diving website.