BURLEY-in-Wharfedale diver Rosie Whiting made up a team of nine junior divers from Great Britain to take part in the Waldkariburg Youth International meet near Munich in Germany.

This competition annually attracts some of the world's finest junior divers and serves as preparation for both the Junior European and the World Age Group Championships.

The British team, competing against 11 other countries, improved on previous years with a superb second place behind host team Germany.

The British team managed this result without a female diver to compete in the oldest category.

Rosie, competing in the 14/15 years girls 3 metre springboard event, dived with improved consistency to not only score a personal best score of 286.90 points but also finished fourth behind Nora Barter (Hungary), Anna Keiss (Germany) and Kerstin Skupien (Germany).

Her result made up in some way for finishing third in the European Junior Trials three weeks previously when she beat the GB selected diver Lucy Hurst who finished down the field in ninth place.

Rosie, 14, competed in the NEC senior championships in Sheffield and continued her excellent form.

Competing in three events - the one metre springboard, three metre springboard and the platform event it was a tough couple of days for her but she scored personal bests in all three events.

The first event, the one metre, has proved to be the most frustrating for Rosie in recent times with a number of missed medal opportunities. This was the case again as she was in second place after the seventh round behind British No 1 Jane Smith but missed with her 8th round dive and slipped back to fourth place seven points off bronze and eight points off silver.

In the platform event which she is relatively new to a re-start on her armstand cost her ten points but she gained a very respectable sixth place.

The long awaited three metre springboard event came on the second day and as this is her more favoured event a good result was on the cards.

Again the main opposition was British No 1 Smith but a number of top age group girls were also in the reckoning.

Unbelievably Rosie dropped her first dive but from them on it was a question of consistency for the remaining nine dives.

As the rounds with the more complicated dives started the pressure mounted and one by one the other competitors made mistakes but Rosie kept her cool to open up a 26 point lead over Lucy Hurst from the City of Leeds club.

Rosie scored a new personal best 359.20 for her best competition to date to finish second to Smith.

In a couple of weeks Smith will be competing to make the Commonwealth Games team for England whilst Rosie will be gaining vital international experience in Amsterdam for the Dolfijn Cup from July 10-12.

Rosie is a member of the City of Bradford Esprit Diving Club and is a student at Ilkley Grammar School.

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