The Forest City Diving Club (FCDC) has had some extraordinary recent success. In early March, five Elite Tier I divers and their coach traveled to Victoria, British Columbia to compete at the 2015 Marc LePoole’s Speedo Sting.
This year, top divers from all over Canada came to showcase their skills on 1m, 3m and Platform in hopes of securing a spot on the 2015 Canadian team, which will travel to Dresden, Germany to represent Canada at the annual Youth International Diving Meet on April 23-26. The FCDC team was comprised of Faith Zacharias, Joshua Inglis, Anika Holland, Jamie Dutz and Al’x Pierre. Under the watchful eye of their coach, Luda Zakharenko, all five finished in the top 12.
FCDC was proud to announce that Faith and Joshua, with their gold medal wins on 1m and 3m, secured two of the 12 coveted spots to represent Team Canada. And their coach, Luda, was chosen as one of three Canadian coaches to accompany the Canadian team to Dresden.
Meanwhile, during the March break, the Jr. and Sr. Tier I team traveled to Thunder Bay, Ontario to compete at the Spring Provincial Championships, hoping to earn one of the 12 spots to attend an elite training camp and international competition in Cuba. The divers had astounding results, each landing on the podium, with many achieving personal best scores and qualifying National standard scores.
An impressive six divers (Al’x Pierre, Brittany Haskell, Jordan Fulawka, Camryn Hughes, Julia Parybak and Katelyn Fung) headed off to Cuba. The head coach, Ioana Marinescu, a 1992 Barcelona Olympian, was the lead coach for this training camp and competition, which took place April 19-26.
Ioana and Luda have been training high-level athletes here in London since 2003 and 2009, respectively. The continued success of the divers and these coaches shows that London has made a mark on the map for producing high performance divers.
Diving is a sport that requires intensive training, both on land and in the water. Practices in the gym are used for strength and conditioning, as well as preparation of new dives through repetitive motions. Competitive Divers train up to nine times a week.
Our strong Learn to Dive program is a recreational program that introduces children/adults to the sport of diving in a safe and fun environment. Come and check out our Summer Camps that run weekly through the months of July and August. To see what diving is all about, visit us at the Canada Games Aquatic Centre on June 13/14 when FCDC is hosting the Tier II Provincial Championships.
For more information, visit www.forestcitydiving.com or call 226-289-5504.
– Story Submitted by Forest City Diving Club
