COMMONWEALTH and Olympic Games hopeful Tom Owens has just enjoyed medal success at home and abroad.

A splendid October started with a trip to Cairo for the Egypt international meet where the 18-year-old won a bronze medal in the one-metre springboard event.

The outdoor pool and bright sunshine presented a new set of problems for the former QMC student.

"There's quite a bit of difference from diving indoors because the sky is the same colour as the water."

Owens was dogged by a stomach complaint in the early stages of the three-day competition, but was as high as second in the three-metre event before slipping out of the medal positions with two disappointing dives.

Owens was one of four members of Southampton Diving Academy, the lone British entrants, who made a trip that was cancelled and then rearranged just the day before they left.

"Although my preparation was not very good, it was a good competition," he said. "Although I was disgusted with my last two dives in the three-metre springboard, it was good experience."

Sponsorship from family and friends enabled him to make the trip.

Only days later, Owens competed in his club pool at The Quays in the Southampton Invitational - one of the four top domestic contests outside the national championships.

He won the men's open three-metre springboard competition with a lifetime best score of 296.10. Second was clubmate Gary Hunt, and third and fourth were divers from Leeds and Sheffield respectively.

In the open platform event, the top two placings were reversed with Owens second with a score of 265.20.

Owens completed a full set of medals by winning bronze in the open one-metre springboard. Hunt won his second gold, City of Leeds diver Marc Holdsworth was second and Owens third with a score of 238.45.

Owens, who trains or coaches at The Quays for up to six hours a day, six days a week, has recently been chosen for the Talented Athletes Scholarship Scheme (TASS).

His latest successes follow a gold medal won in a summer synchro event at Southampton.

Owens, whose long-term goals are places in the England and British teams at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006 and the Beijing Olympics two years later, next tackles a national standard meet at Luton later this month, before the winter nationals in the Commonwealth pool in Manchester in February.

Further medal successes may cause the Basingstoke diver to extend his gap year and further delay going to university.