After four days of competition, the Australian Diving Championships has come to a stunning close with the World Championships and Commonwealth Games to be selected in the coming days.

Athletes pulled out all stops to bring home the medals and put themselves in the frame for Australian Team selection, with both teams to be finalised over the coming days. 

Tokyo Olympian Nikita Hains edged out the competition to win the Women’s Platform, finishing on 630.00 ahead of Emily Boyd (629.45) and Emily Meaney (628.50). 

The 21 year old was thrilled to come away with the win to give herself the best opportunity of Australian Team selection. 

“I wanted to put in a steady performance and go out there and make myself proud… to come away with the win is just amazing,” said Hains. 

“The women’s platform event is a really strong event… all the competitors are so strong, and it’s just good dive after good dive and you really get to feed off that energy.

“The win puts me in the strongest position to be selected [for the Australian Teams]. This would be my first World Championships and Commonwealth Games team which would mean everything to me and is something I’ve always dreamed of.  To put myself alongside the incredible names that have come before me would be a real honour. 

“I must thank my coach Rick Schavone who has fully supported me on this incredible journey,” she said. 

The day kicked off with a strong gold medal win from fellow Tokyo Olympian Shixin Li, who finished atop the podium on 900.05 ahead of Lachlan Cronin (788.85) and Sam Fricker (787.00).

Li is pleased at the prospect of again representing Australia, this time at a Commonwealth Games. 

“This would be my first time to go to the Commonwealth Games… I’ve travelled to a lot of places around the world for diving but I have never been to the UK,” he said. 

As the oldest Diving squad member, Li said the talent coming through the diving ranks is really exciting and he enjoys sharing his experiences. 

“We have some pretty new, young divers in Australia competing which is really good.  There are people who have now retired [internationally] so it will be a different World Championships this year. I do like to share my experiences with the team, try to help them learn,” he said. 

In the Women’s 3 metre it was Rio Olympian and Gold Coast Commonwealth Games representative, Brittany O’Brien, who won the gold medal on 665.60 ahead of Georgia Sheehan (656.40) and Maddison Keeney (649.50).

The final event of the day, the Men’s Platform, was won by Cassiel Rousseau with a score of 984.55, with Sam Fricker (898.55) and Jaxon Bowshire (778.80) rounding out the minor placings. 

The World Championships and Commonwealth Games teams are still to be announced, stay tuned to Diving Australia website for more. 

For full results from the Australian Championships - click here.