Congratulations to Nikita Hains who has been shortlisted for the 2016 WAIS Junior Athlete of the Year Award.

The 2016 shortlist is dominated by women’s sport with all six athletes (five nominations) in the running for the title.

The impressive cast, includes Olympians, Youth World Champions and an exciting mix of current talent and future potential, with the Award set to be announced at the weekend’s WAIS Annual Dinner at HBF Stadium.

The WAIS Junior Athlete of the Year Award recognises those young athletes who have achieved excellence within their sport during the 2015/2016 voting period (1 Oct 2015 – 30 Sep 2016).

15-year-old Nikita Hains has emerged as a serious talent for the future in Australian diving during 2016.

Competing against the best divers Australia has to offer, Hains came away with an outstanding seventh place finish in the 10m platform final at the National Championships, which also doubled as Olympic selection trials. Remarkably, in the semifinal stage, Hains posted the third highest score, showing she has the talent to mix it with the nation’s best, despite her relative short journey in the sport, compared with the likes of triple Olympian Melissa Wu.

In addition to this, she won a gold medal in the 10m platform event at the Amsterdam Cup and finished sixth in the same discipline at the International Youth Diving Meet in Dresden, Germany against world class junior field.

Bet of luck to Nikita.

For the full story on the WAIS website: http://www.wais.org.au/other/news_detail.php?id=9282