A diver who was born and raised in Ashton-Under-Lyne has capped off a great year by being named the Diving Emerging Athlete Of The Year at the British Swimming Awards 2019.
Anthony Harding has been in the water since he can remember and learnt his trade at the City Of Leeds Diving Club having to make the trip there from Ashton daily. He won a silver medal at the Youth Olympics in Argentina just over a year ago. The 19-year-old, from Lancashire, finished second in the Men’s 3m Springboard final in Buenos Aires with a score of 559.50 points. He was 16.55 points behind Colombia’s Garcia Daniel Restrepo, who topped the podium with a total of 576.05
It has been his first senior year and he has won a medal at every international level. And now the Tameside star has this latest accolade to add to his growing collection. After receiving the award he said:
“I’m really happy as I wasn’t expecting the award with two other competitors who have been brilliant and achieved similar to me but I’m really happy to win this award.
“I wasn’t really expecting to win much this year with it being my first senior year but to win a medal in every single event has been brilliant and I have to thank my partner Jordan as well”
When asked about the 202 Olympics in Tokyo he stated:
“I haven’t really set any big goals for 2020 as I’m only going into my second senior year and it may be a bit too soon for my Olympics so maybe 2024 but I would be more than happy to go to 2020 in Tokyo.”