TRIPLE Olympic medallist Robert Newbery's diving career is up in the air after being accepted to study medicine next year.

Kongzheng “KZ” Li continues the rich tradition of exceptional coaching as the new Head Coach of the Mission Viejo Nadadores Dive Team. Head Coach, Kim Berbari, turned over the reighs to KZ in October as she and husband Luis await the arrival of the first child in January. On her decision to find a new head coach for the Nadadores Dive Team, Berbari said, “KZ will be excellent for the program and has all the ability and experience to bring the Nadadores back to the National Champions they once were.”

ATHENS Olympic medallists will receive more direct payments from the Australian Olympic Committee to help fund their training for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games under guidelines to be put before the AOC board this week. Gold medallists could receive up to $10,000 more in funding for their four-year Olympic quests through an extension of the AOC's direct funding of medallists and their coaches.

Meili Carpenter obliterates 16-18 girls' meet records on 1M and 3M Cassidy Lynch (SAGE), Brooke Perkins (TOPS), and Sean Moore (MHDC) also set new meet records.

BEIJING, Nov. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Olympic golden medal winners and lovers, Tian Liang and Guo Jingjing, have been dumped from China's special diving training team for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games...The golden partners were besieged by rumors that they were involved in a triangle love, so both Olympic champions were demoted to their provincial sports teams.

BEIJING, Nov. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese sport stars Tian Liang and Guo Jingjing, who monopolized the top spots at the Olympic diving championship in Athens this year, have been nominated for the “Best Image” award at the MTV Style Awards 2004.The popular divers, allegedly lovers, are still bathing in an endless round of celebrity interviews, paparazzi lenses, and gossip scandals that have started since their return from Athens this September...However, they have been criticized for being absent from training and were urged to rejoin the national diving team by the team recently.

China's sports schools take thousands of very young children and groom them for glory. In four years' time, it should be the most successful Olympic nation on earth. Sam Wollaston reports....It's a pyramid, with a massive base - the 300,000 children in the country's sports school....The other criticism aimed at the Chinese Olympic programme is that it's about targeting all the so-called soft medals - in shooting, diving, and table tennis. more

OLYMPIC bronze medallist Rebecca Manuel was in Orange on the weekend for a coaching clinic and come and try day.

"She has a lot of talent, but she's barely beginning to use that talent," head diving coach Abel Sanchez said.  Barras' undefeated streak is at four straight, with eight consecutive wins in both the one- and three-meter board competitions.

Acrobatic, exhilarating and captivating, yet full of grace and beauty, diving is the next big thing in sport, writes Anna Millar.... But diving is back in vogue. Not just because it’s finding its feet in the mainstream limelight, but because recent sports funding, filtering through from the government and local authorities, has put it back on the financial and social agenda.

A coach and parent interviewed said a riot almost ensued at the pool after meet organizers began asking fans to leave the center after the diving event. Fans were asked to buy another ticket for the swimming finals.  In the State Class 1A boys’ diving event sophomore Taylor Dehn lost a close battle for the state title to Admiral Farragut’s Austin Hampton. Dehn took second with 504.75 points to Hampton’s 526.65. Dehn’s father, Michael said Taylor missed his back somersault 2/12

These past years, less and less USA divers got into Olympic gold metal finals. Could it be that diving is not a sought after summer activity ...Let us bring back the sound of the "boom-at-a-boom, boom" of the board reverberated propelling someone into the air. The sound of which beckoned everybody's head to turn poolside.

Grils 1-meter 11 dives - 1. Chelsea Ray, Dimond, 358.60; 2. Sasha Porter, Soldotna, 341.70; 3. Megan Morton, Dimond, 340.00; 4. Melissa Wood, Lathrop, 329.95; 5. Marnita Coenraad, Juneau-Douglas, 303.50; 6. Kristine Kintz, Dimond, 300.50; 7. Caitlin Moore, East Anchorage, 295.30; 8. Janae Purcella, South Anchorage, 263.85. Other Southeast: (cut after five dives) 15. Holly Trucano, Juneau-Douglas, 106.65; 16. Tanya Trucano, Juneau-Douglas, 106.00; 18. Monica Daugherty, Juneau-Douglas, 99.30. Boys 1-meter 11 dives - 1. David Arlington, Pacific Northern Academy, 453.40; 2. Ryan Borup, Ketchikan, 443.20; 3. Matthew Arb, Service, 375.65; 4. Nick Wise, Colony, 355.65; 5. Zach Bunker, South Anchorage, 339.00; 6. Brett Frazer, Service, 299.00; 7. Andy Knowles, Kenai Central, 289.25; 8. Brandon Gonski, Colony, 273.50. Other Southeast: (cut after five dives) 13. Alex Weissburg, Sitka, 124.7

"Well I'd hope that they all do actually. I've been looking forward to Andy Bradley. He was 2nd in the nation last year. Dean Emmerton I think he can. I hope Ian Balman can compete in the Top 12 in the SEC and possibly qualify for the NCAAs."

As she stood atop the diving board at yesterday's Section 1 Diving Championships, the strain of the second-place diver just a few points away wasn't enough. She kept telling herself, "You've only got one chance. You're either going to make it or break it. There's no tomorrow."

"Our teams will train together... And our coaches, trainers, judges, officials, experts and scientists will attend seminars andcourses and exchange ideas beneficial to both countries," he said.

Sarawakian Bryan Nickson has become Malaysia's first world junior diving champion. ...Thomas Finchum of United States took silver with 381.70 points and Russia's Artem Lvov won the bronze on 381.70....Bryan, in a telephone interview from Belem yesterday, said that he was delighted to become the first Malaysian diver to win a gold in the world junior championships.