THREE?local school children travelled to Luton recently for the England Talent Games — an event designed to test the country's top young divers who hope to qualify for the England Talent Programme.

They are Ben Bluett, a pupil at St Peter's Junior School, Evangeline Piper, a pupil at Mount Kelly Prep and Ben Armitage.

All three were put through various gymnastic and diving tests and came back with six gold medals and one silver.

Evangeline, 9, won both the gymnastics and diving rounds in her age-group, and with a combined score of 245 out of a possible 300, took the overall top spot for the weekend.

The two Bens, neither of whom are gymnasts, both held their own in the gym with Ben Bluett, 10, finishing 7th and Ben Armitage, 11, finishing 8th in the boys aged 10 to 11 category. Both then excelled in the pool, Ben B finished 4th and Ben A 5th and with a combined gym and pool score of 203 for Ben B and 199.58 for Ben A positioned them in 6th and 8th places overall respectively.

Euan McCabe, from Plymstock, who also dives for Plymouth diving and is coached by Fito Gutierrez, also did incredibly well picking up two bronze and one silver medal in his age-group (boys aged 8 to 9 years).

The knockout diving finals followed, where the top eight divers overall (from 60 plus divers) on each board went head to head in a competition much like the TV series 'Splash'.

After each dive the two divers with the lowest score were eliminated. The boys showed off their diving skills with Ben A taking gold on 1m and 3m platform and Ben B taking gold on 3m springboard and 4th place on both 1m and 3m platform (Ben B achieving no less than four perfect 10s in the process — more than any other diver on the day.