Diving Australia has this week announced that it has appointed Adrian Hinchliffe to the position of National Coach Brisbane.

Adrian, or as he is more commonly known, Ady, comes to Australia from Great Britain where he has been an Olympic coach for Team GB for the last 4 Olympic Games.

Whilst he has had many highlights in his coaching career, and has coached a huge number of exceptional athletes, there is no doubt that his career highlight is coaching Jack Laugher and Chris Mears to the Gold Medal in the 3m Synchro at the Rio Olympics earlier this year. He also coached Jack to the individual 3m Silver Medal.

It should be noted that the Rio Synchro Gold Medal was not only Great Britain’s first ever diving Gold Medal, but it also was the only diving Gold Medal in Rio not won by the powerful Chinese team.

Whilst a difficult decision to leave his native England, Ady was excited about the challenge of tackling a new role in a new country: “in some ways it is a bittersweet moment in accepting this appointment, as I have loved coaching in Great Britain, and more particularly Leeds, but the opportunity to commence this new role in Australia at a truly world class program, was one I could not pass up for myself and my family. With a home Commonwealth Games for Australia on the horizon and then the Tokyo Olympics a little further away, the time is absolutely right to explore this new challenge and I am so excited to be working with Diving Australia and the amazing Australian athletes”.

Ady also paid credit to his current athletes and coaching team: “without athletes such as Jack, Chris, James, Becky, Alicia and of course my Jamaican friend Yona, I would have not nearly enjoyed the last few years as much – and I need to pay huge tribute to my great friend Edwin and the other Leeds based coaches for supporting me as they have. I will miss them for sure”.

Diving Australia Chairman Michael Murphy was also excited to make the announcement: “Ady is a rising, indeed risen, star in the diving coaching world and we are incredibly excited to secure him to lead our Brisbane program and be a huge part of our National Coach Panel. We will leave no stone unturned in our quest to continually improve our programs and systems for the benefit of our athletes and we know this appointment will do exactly that”.

Ady will formally commence with Diving Australia in the first quarter of 2017, following visa arrangements and will be making a visit to Brisbane in early January to meet some of the athletes and coaches and start to plan for 2017 and onwards