Kingsbridge

Kingsbridge schoolgirl, Rebecca Darke, has been selected to represent Great Britain at the World AquaChallenge Championship 2008.

Darke will travel to Durban, South Africa, later this month to compete in the biennial underwater hockey tournament as part of the GB Ladies Elite Team.

The 17 year old is no stranger to international success in the pool. In 2006 she helped Great Britain's U19 Ladies win silver at the World Championships in Sheffield. This year's call up to the Ladies Elite Team gives Darke her first taste of senior competition at world level.

Competition within the Ladies Elite category is fierce with Australia and Canada the chief contenders. Team GB are also in the running and hope to improve on their 2006 result when they were beaten into fourth place, narrowly missing out on the medals.

Underwater Hockey, also known as Octopush, was originally invented in the early 1950s by sub-aqua divers in Southsea who got bored just swimming up and down pool lanes to get fit. The game is now played worldwide. It is played with a lead puck and short handled sticks or bats on the bottom of a swimming pool with the aim being to score goals into gullies, which are situated, at each end of the playing area. Players wear snorkels and fins and have to perfect their timing from the water surface to the pool floor in order to receive passes and play the puck.

Anyone interested in finding out more about underwater hockey should contact the Kingsbridge Krays who train at Quayside Leisure Centure in Kingsbridge every Wednesday from 8.30pm – 9.30pm.