SOUTHEND Diving Club’s Duran Omer has spoken of his pride and delight at making his international debut.

The 16-year-old claimed eighth placed in the one metre springboard final at the International Youth Diving Meet in Dresden, Germany.

And he is now hungry to sample more top level competition for his country.

“It was insane to be selected for Great Britain and it’s something I certainly want to be able to happen again now,” said Omer.

“It was just incredible, the best moment of my career so far and it made me feel really proud as well.

“My coach knew I had been selected for it, but I didn’t find out until I got a letter through which made for a great surprise.

“I was also quite happy with how it went out there as well.

“It was a steady performance apart from one of my dives in the final which didn’t really go as well as I would’ve liked but overall I was reasonably pleased for my first international competition.”

Omer made it through the preliminary round with a series of consistent dives before taking eighth place in the final with 438.35 points.

Germany’s Timo Barthel won gold with 498 points while Omer’s GB team-mate Jordan Houlden claimed silver with 486.95.

However, Omer is confident of being able to improve on his performance.

“There’s certainly more to come from me and I know what I need to work on,” said Omer, who is already back in training in Southend.

“I have the Junior Elite National Championships coming up and if I do well in them then I could also have the Junior European Championships which is the next big target of mine.”

But Omer has already enjoyed an excellent season and won gold at the National Diving Championships which were held in Southend in January.