AN Uxbridge College student is celebrating an amazing start to 2013 by winning three bronze medals with the Team GB diving team at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival.

Georgia Ward, 17, was third in the individual 10m platform, 10m synchronised platform and 3m synchronised springboard.

Georgia, who trains with Crystal Palace Diving Club, said: “I was aiming to get top five but I didn’t expect to win, especially as my synchro partners and I had never trained together.”

Georgia, of Perivale, has ambitions to compete at the next Olympic Games in Rio De Janiero in 2016.

She added: “It would be amazing to get through to compete at Rio, I’d be speechless if I was picked.”

Georgia is also in line to represent Team GB at the next Commonwealth Games in Glasgow next year.

A keen gymnast before turning to diving, she trains around 25 hours a week as well as studying for her BTEC National Diploma in Sport and Exercise Science.

Despite her achievements so far on the high board she says: “The height of the platform is quite scary. I am quite scared of heights but you just have to not think about it.”

Her tutor at Uxbridge College, Martina Ashton, is understandably proud of the brilliant start to her career.

She said: “She can now see the benefit of all the training and sacrifices she has to make to be able to be this good!

“Georgia is an extraordinary student who is capable not just at diving but is working extremely well on her course, where she is hoping to progress in education by gaining a scholarship in the US. She is a great ambassador for Uxbridge College and we all hope she makes it to Rio in 2016!”