Scotch College

Hard work pays off at international level

Fancy two and a half hours’ training six mornings before school hours and another three hours on weekday evenings? (You can have Saturday night and Sundays off.) This is the program that 13-year-old Cameron Rees of Year 8 has week in and week out at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre (MSAC).

Cameron started diving four year ago and his first competition was in an Under 10 MSAC event. Since coming to Scotch he has won both the one- and three-metre springboard events at the APS Swimming and Diving Finals – in the Under 15 event last year, and the Under 17 event this year.

At State and National Titles he has enjoyed great success against divers far older and more seasoned than himself (see Table 1).

The move by Cameron to Under 18 events was to enable him to be able to access his favourite discipline – the 10-metre platform. His efforts were well-rewarded with an invitation with four other Australians to compete against divers from ten European countries at the International Junior Diving Competition held in Pardubice near Prague, Czechoslovakia. With 16 to 20 competitors in each event, Cameron won silver medals in the three- and 10-metre events and the bronze medal in the one-metre.

With the talent he has already displayed, we are going to hear of this young man’s successes in the years ahead. Cameron has his sights set on a place with his fellow Australian divers at the 2112 London Olympics. We wish him well in the thousands of hours of training and the many competitions between now and 2112.

NEVILLE TAYLOR

Table 1: Rees’ results at State and National Titles

2004

2005