This could be the most important weekend in Katura Horton-Perinchief?s collegiate diving career.

Having started on Thursday and continuing through until tomorrow she is competing in the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships knowing that at stake is her last chance to qualify for the overall Women?s NCAA Diving Championships.

It?s a prize that frustratingly eluded her in three seasons at University of Texas and now, in her fourth and final year of college competition, she is determined not to be thwarted.

Repeated outstanding performances as a Colonial ? culminating in her recent capture of the Atlantic 10 Conference?s 2005 Most Outstanding Diver title as she won both the one-metre and three-metre springboard events at the conference championships ? have made her the favourite for zone success. Were she to advance to the NCAA finals, she would be only the second diver from George Washington University ever to do so.

Last year, in her farewell outing as a Longhorn, she was desperately close to the NCAA finals, finishing third in platform in the zonal showdown. As fate would have it the top two advanced.

?I was third by one point because I missed a dive,? she said, recalling last year?s heartbreak.

Life on the boards is hardly ever easy for the 22-year-old Bermudian and in the past month she has battled painful shin splints which curtailed her training and have threatened to do likewise to her dream.

Prior to injury, she trained twice daily from Monday to Friday and also once on Saturdays but was forced to cut back to once daily and resting on weekends.

?It?s been a big frustration. I was diving really well this entire year, setting records. It?s one of my best collegiate years and it?s my last year in college diving and the last chance to make NCAAs,? said Horton-Perinchief, explaining that athletes are limited to four years of college eligibility.

?Before my injury, my mindset was that I had to hit all my dives and now I have to hit dives that don?t hurt me because if I do make NCAAs I don?t want to blow it all on Zones. I don?t want to reinjure my leg or make it worse.?

Relegated to second place just once in competition this season ? at the height of her injury ? she expects her toughest test to come from the rival who beat her on that occasion. Back then, the Olympian performed conservatively to protect her leg but with so much depending on the coming days she will do a bit extra while still being careful.

?I could definitely beat her if I was fully fit but this is going to be a challenge. I might be able to beat her injured. It just depends on the day.

?Hopefully, we will get a good combination of dives that will allow me to score high. At this stage, it?s not about trying to execute my big dives very well. It?s just (about) playing it safe,? she said, confirming that she will use her full four-step approach instead of the shortened one she resorted to at the conference finals.

Explaining that a mere four divers advance from Zone A to the NCAA Championships ? the winners of all three boards as well as the runner-up on three-metre springboard ? Horton-Perinchief has entered the meet at the Naval Academy in Maryland with a plan to spare herself unnecessary exertion.

?At Zones, we do the three-metre and one-metre springboard in that order and then the platform competition. If a diver qualifies for the NCAA finals in either springboard event then they can choose to do all three boards at the finals.

?If I make NCAA on three-metre or one-metre I will not do the harder dives on platform. However, if I have not qualified in either springboard event then I?m going to have to do my harder dives on platform.

?But the strategy right now is to keep my leg from bothering me.?