Williamson Platforms to World Cup Selection
Teju Williamson has won the Australian Open women’s platform title and earned herself a spot on the national World Cup team following a successful campaign in Brisbane.
The title is the latest chapter in an already fruitful 2018 campaign for the Brisbane-based West Aussie after she made a late debut at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games as an injury replacement, before then competing at World Cup events with Melissa Wu in Canada and Russia.
At the Australia Open Championships, Williamson brought her A-game when it mattered most, scoring 318.10 to win the women’s platform final after having been outside the top three in both the preliminary and semi-final stages.
Her recent high-level experience appeared to give her focus under pressure, with the 19 year-old hitting her high difficulty dives whilst others lost points on execution as she held-off stern challenges from Emily Meaney (second with 312.00) and Emily Boyd, (third with 306.90) for gold.
WA athlete Nikita Hains finished 10th with a score of 237.60.
Williamson also teamed with Meaney to win the 10m Synchro title, ahead of Brittany O’Brien and Annarose Keating.
As a result of her impressive form at the championships, Williamson has earned selection for the 12-strong Australian team to contest the FINA World Cup event in Wuhan, China early next month.
Olympian Maddison Keeney will also feature in the World Cup squad, despite not competing at the Australian Open as she continues to manage a foot injury that prevented her from contesting a full event program at the Commonwealth Games.
At the Diving Australia Awards which followed the completion of the Australian Open Championships, Keeney was presented the 2017 Best Female Diver Award. Her season was highlighted by a debut World Championship win in the 1m springboard at last year’s FINA titles in Hungary.
There was also an encouraging fourth place effort for 14 year-old Zoe Langtry in the final of the women’s 1m springboard competition.
Langtry trains under coach Matt Helm with the WAIS Diving Program at HBF Stadium.