The 2025 Southern Cross Series wrapped in New Zealand on Sunday, drawing to a close the first international diving meet of the year with a number of our Australian divers on top of the podium and recording personal best results. 

Among the seven Australian divers who made the trip across the ditch, there were three new faces introduced to the senior international diving stage. 

Zafar Marikar, Ben Wilson and Lachlan Abbott all made their senior international debut at the event which ran from Thursday 30 January to Sunday 2 February. 

Zafar, who is also one of the youngest members of the Diving Australia Senior Squad, made quite an impression when he took to the platform at the West Wave Pool and Leisure Centre in Auckland. 

The 17-year-old edged out Malayasia’s Elvis Priestly, with an international personal best score of 400.85, to claim gold in the Men’s 10m Platform. 

Meanwhile, it was an all Aussie affair in the final of the Women’s 10m Platform with Milly Puckeridge clinching gold and Lauren Flint silver.

Nina Phan made a strong return to international competition, picking up gold in the Women’s 3m Springboard before pairing with Ben Wilson to win the Mixed 3m Synchro against the Kiwi pairing of Noah Atkinson and Riley Oxenham. 

The mixed team event also provided the Aussie divers with further bragging rights in the Trans Tasman rivalry, with Milly, Zafar and Nina joining Hudson Skinner (who also recorded a PB at the meet) to claim gold over their Kiwi counterparts. 

Diving Australia’s High Performance Director Steve Foley said that the Series proved beneficial for our divers on a multitude of fronts. 

“Whilst this meet was aimed at providing our athletes with more competition experience, it was invaluable to expose them to the international judges and become accustomed to multiple list dives in 2-3 days of competition.

“Our athletes stepped up a gear in New Zealand with many divers achieving a personal best.

“Overall, it was a great meet and it definitely will assist our divers to aim higher and take their dives to the next level,”  he said.

A full list of results from the 2025 Southern Cross Diving Series is available here.