Diving

• Squad
• Coaches

WHiPA Elite Diving Squad

Li Feng Yang

• Started diving at the age of 5 and selected into Shandong sports programme at the age of 7. 
• Competed at junior and senior championships in China
• Started coaching in 2008 and has success with junior Chinese divers
• 2010 came to NZ as an assistant coach working with Steven Zhu
• Offered an invitational spot to dive at the Olympic Qualifier Wellington 2011. Competed with great results after only 4 weeks of training
• Competed at the Australian Opens Championships and broke the NZ record
• NZ Autumn Championships March 2012 blitzed the field breaking the NZ records on 1 metre / 3 metre and Platform events. 

WHiPA Elite Diving Squad 

Arno Lee

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Helena Nagrampa

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Jenna Larking

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WHiPA Talent ID Diving Squad 

• Harry Stew
• Imogen Barker-Macalister
• Lucia Marull
• Nayeli Marull

WHiPA Junior Diving Squad 

We have a number of divers in the Junior and Development Squads, focussing on skill development and gaining competitive experience at a local and national level. These divers include: 

• Alice Loretto
• Freya Bacon Bootham
• Joanna Zhao 
• Yasmin Kelly
  

Coaches

Steven Zhu

 

 

 

 

Steven started out as a young gymnast in China, winning a national title at the age of 13. After a bad injury he took up coaching the sport of diving where his athletes competed at Grand Prix, World Cups and Olympic Games.

He was a coach in the Province of Jiangsu and then went on to work with the National Chinese team assisting with setting and implementing training programmes. Through the late 1980’s he coached Chinese teams to Grand Prix, World Cups, World University Games and the Olympics; several members of these teams winning gold, silver and bronze medals. One of Steven’s star divers was Tong Hui (silver medal at the ’84 Olympics) who is now the Head Diving Coach at the Australian Institute of Sport.

Steven spent several years in Malaysia developing diving before coming to New Zealand to do an English language course. He was appointed the National High Performance Coach for Diving New Zealand, based at the Waitakere Aquatic Centre, and is credited with a ‘world junior title’. He had another three years as the High Performance Head Coach at the West Australian Diving Academy, and the West Australian Institute of Sport, where he had placings at the 2005 and 2007 Olympic Youth Games.

He has been Head Coach of the Wellington High Performance Aquatics diving division since its formation in 2008.

Li Feng Yang

As an athlete, Li Feng dived and won medals at Chinese National Championships over a 10 year period with a highlight being a Gold Medal at the National Games on Platform in 2006.

During the last 2 years has been coaching junior divers in Shandong Province and has success with them at national championships. Li Feng producd 4 Gold Medal performances as an Assistant Coach in 2009 in various events. Between coaching he has been doing ‘Show Diving’ at the Olympic Pool in Beijing. Li Feng works with the WHiPA Development Squad of 8-11 year old selected from the Sunday Diving programme run by WHiPA. He continues to dive as well, recently breaking a number of New Zealand records