Welcome to Wellington High Performance Aquatics

Wellington High Performance Aquatics (WHiPA) aims to develop athletes to enable them to excel at an elite level. The foundation sport is diving, with other aquatic disciplines to follow as the centre grows.

What's New

Malaysian Age Group Championships 27-29 April 2012

12 year old WHiPA athlete Yu Qian Goh competed in her first overseas competition, the Malaysian Age Group Championships in Seremban, Malaysia over the weekend, finishing 4th on 3 metre in a closely fought battle with 3 Malaysian National Squad members, and 4th place on the 1 metre.

Term 2 Sunday Diving Sessions

Sunday Diving sessions are back by popular demand for Term 2! Over 6 Sundays during April - June, kidswanting to have a go at the sport of diving can participate in these sessions. The sessions are just $5 plus pool entry and run from 2.30 - 3.30pm. For more information email info@whipa.org.nz

Diving New Zealand Autumn Championships 22-25 March Hamilton

The Diving New Zealand Autumn Champs this weekend saw WHiPA Development Squad divers Arno Lee, Imogen Macalister, Joanna Zhao, Freya Bacon Bootham and Alice Loretto compete at their first national event. All first time divers received top 5 placements in day 1 of the competition.

Day 1 highlights:
11 & Under Skills: 1st Arno Lee (by 40 points).
12 & Over Skills: 1st Imogen Imogen Macalister, 2nd Joanna Zhou (only 4 points behind!).
Open Women’s 1 metre: 2nd Janine Sharma (back competing after a long break with an injury)
Men’s 1 metre: 1st Li Feng Yang (Competing by invitation 371.10).

Day 2 highlights:
Men’s 3 Metre: 1st Li Feng Yang diving by invitation (blitzing the field by 116.20 points)
Girl’s Group C 3 Metre: 1st Yu Qian Goh (262.50 points – qualifying her for the Australian Junior Elites in July).
Women’s Open 3 Metre: 3rd Beth Edwards
Girls Group A 1 Metre: Beth Edwards
WHiPA Development Squad divers again shone in the skills competition:
11 & Under: 1st Arno Lee, 2nd Freya Bacon Bootham .
12 & Over: 1st Alice Loretto, 3rd Imogen Imogen Macalister, 4th Joanna Zhou.

Diving New Zealand Autumn Champs Day 3 Update:
WOW!! Li Feng Yang diving by invitation at the DNZ Autumn Championships impresses in the 10 metre preliminaries with a massive score of 430.20! The New Zealand record is 172.00 points.

Diving New Zealand Autumn Champs Final Day Update:
11 & Under Platform Skills: Arno Lee (131.50 out of a possible 150 points) – awesome 5 metre platform skills and the only diver awarded at 10 at the meet. 5th Freya Bacon Bootham
12 & Overs Platform Skills: 1st Joanna Zhao 105.00,2nd Alice Loretto and Imogen McCalister both with 104.00.
Group A 3 metre: 2nd Beth Edwards
Girls Group C 1 Metre: 1st Yu Qian Goh 265.70. She also qualified in this event for the Australian Junior Elites.

4.06 Minutes of Fame

Check out the lastest music video from Eden Mulholland "Shanty Town". It features some awesome diving footage of Li Feng Yang – WHiPA’s Assistant Diving Coach and Beth Edwards WHiPA diver.

18th FINA Diving World Cup

Over 220 divers from 40 countries are arriving in London for the 18th FINA Diving World Cup, taking place from February 20-26 in the Olympic Aquatic Centre. This competition will be both a qualifying and test event for the 2012 Olympic Games so the action is sure to be intense!
Check out the latest results here.

Nutrition Clinic February 2012

WHiPA athletes participated in a workshop with dietician Kath Fouhy from Sport & Exercise Science New Zealand. As Kath says “Eating well is not about depriving yourself of all the things that taste good, instead providing your body with the fuel it needs to get the most out of life”

Lloyd Morrison CNZM

18 September 1957 - 10 February 2012

WHiPA are saddened to announce that it's founder Lloyd Morrison passed away this morning in Seattle, Washington.

Lloyd returned to his beloved Wellington in 1988 and established H.R.L. Morrison & Co Ltd. In 1994 he founded Infratil and his inspirational leadership, vision, charisma and energy has been the driving force in creating what Infratil is today. In much the same way was Lloyd’s vision for WHiPA, which started in 2007 and has been supporting Wellington aquatic athletes in their bid to succeed on the international stage.

Lloyd was a truly passionate New Zealander and as our founder, mentor and friend he will be greatly missed. We are very proud of being part of one of his fantastic initiatives, and we will continue to keep his legacy of supporting aquatic sport athletes to reach top international levels.

On behalf of WHiPA, our thoughts and hearts are with those he loved the most, his wife Julie Nevett, his children Isabella, Madeleine, Ottilie, Vita and Elliott and his extended family. Lloyd will be greatly missed by all of us who had the opportunity to be part of his life and share his passion.

WHiPA 2011 Annual Awards

Congratulations to the 2011 Annual Award Recipients:

Most Improved Development Diver
Winner: Arno Lee
Runner Up: Helena Nagrampa

New Zealand Representatives
Yu Qian Goh
Jess Holland
Beth Edwards

Under 11 Skills Competition
Winner: Arno Lee

11 & Over Skills Competition
Winner: Alice Loretto

Group C Competition
Winner: Yu Qian Goh

WHiPA Summer Diving Clinic

Click on this flyer for the Registration form and more details.

Click here to view footage from the Asia Pacific Rim Junior Diving Invitational and Oceania Diving - Olympic Qualifying Event

Asia Pacific Rim Junior Diving Invitational and Oceania Diving - Olympic Qualifying Event

It’s becoming a bit of a tradition that everyone goes up on the diving boards at the end of the APAC competition. The 10m’s not for the faint hearted but WHiPA founder Lloyd Morrison was right up there with the kids to say a few closing remarks. Good effort!

CLICK HERE FOR RESULTS

The biggest New Zealand diving event of the year is an opportunity to see some spectacular diving right on our own doorstep.

As organisers, WHiPA will be host to young athletes from some of the top diving countries in the world who will compete against our own Kiwi team at the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre in Kilbirnie,19- 21 August.

The Asia Pacific Rim Junior Diving Invitational brings together 60 junior elite springboard and platform divers with competitors from China, Australia, Malaysia, Hong Kong and India travelling to the capital for the competition. A team from Croatia will also compete.

The competition will also double as an Oceania Diving Olympic Qualifying Event with some impressive Australian divers adding some excitement to the weekend in their bid to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.

New Zealand will field a team of 11 divers including Wellington High Performance Aquatics divers Yu Qian Goh, and 12 year old Jess Holland. Yu Qian, 11, is the baby of the New Zealand squad. She was recently named New Zealand under-13 diver of the year.

We are particularly looking forward to welcoming all the overseas visitors to our cool little capital and WHiPA wishes all the athletes good luck for the competition.

Daily charge: Adults $5, Children 13/under Free.

Click here to view the timetable.

Top divers to take the plunge in Wellington

Some of the world's diving top brass are in Wellington this week for a competition featuring an unusual mix of youngsters and Olympic hopefuls. Read more...

Steven Zhu - Diving Coach

Steven Zhu will provide intensive world-class tuition to both the High Performance Diving Squad and other coaches at WHPA. Steven previously spent time in New Zealand, taking the New Zealand Diving Team to the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games.