The 2023 Oceania Championships got underway in Brisbane on Thursday with four Australians in action against New Zealand. 

Australian divers competed with the goal of securing quotas for their country to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The Men’s 3-Metre Springboard kicked off the Championships with Shixin Li and Kurtis Mathews taking on New Zealand athletes Liam Stone and Nathan Brown. 

Following the preliminaries, Li headed into the Men’s 3-Metre Springboard final in first place, followed Kurtis Mathews in second place. 

Extending his dominance into the final, Li’s final score of 456.65 secured first place, with Mathews also continuing his form to take home second place with a score of 416.60. 

“I’m very happy to have achieved the win today. I have been training hard in the lead up to the competition and also coming back from an injury so I am pleased,” Li said. 

“Kurtis also dived well which is great to see, he has been training hard as well so to see our hard work pay off is great,” he said. 

The Women’s 10-Metre Platform was an intimate affair with Australian’s Nikita Hains and Milly Puckeridge competing against New Zealander Mikali Dawson. 

The Australian athletes proved too strong, following suit of their male teammates on the podium. Hains achieved first place with a final score of 314.90 and Puckeridge finished in second place with 263.05. 

“It’s super exciting to get the win, this is my second Oceania Championship and it is always exciting to perform well,” Hains said.

“This is the first competition of the season so I was a little bit nervous but it’s been really good to put all of my hard work into practice and get out there and compete again,” she said. 

Hains shared she has enjoyed the faster pace of the competition compared to a World Championships environment where there is often a delay between dives. 

“I personally love diving quick, I tend to dive really quick at training so this competition kind of replicates that. I find that delay is what makes World Championships a little bit more challenging. 

“I feel more confident now heading into trials next week after this performance. I have been able to shake off those cobwebs and get back into the season.” 

Final day of 2023 Oceania Championships takes place on Friday with Women’s 3-Metre Springboard and Men’s 10-Metre Platform from 10am AEST. 

Day 1 final results are available here.