DIVERS GEAR UP FOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Olympic silver medallists Leon Taylor and Peter Waterfield
will lead a British contingent at the World Championships
in Canada where they will go all out to win the only medal
missing from their roll of honour.
As Britain’s most decorated divers, Taylor (Sheffield)
and Waterfield
(Southampton) will head-up the squad of 11 that, on Sunday
(17th), will begin eight days of intense competition between
the greatest divers in the world.
Despite a difficult year for the pair, through illness and
injury, National Performance Director Steve Foley believes
they are well placed to challenge once again for the medals.
“The divers are looking in good shape. I was pretty
impressed with how they performed in a mock competition two
days ago.
“Leon Taylor and Peter Waterfield dived reasonably
well but they’re two weeks off their best. We don’t
want them too sharp now we need them hitting all dives in
a weeks’ time and this looks likely.”
Whereas five of the squad will be in familiar surroundings,
having experienced a World Championships before, six are completely
new to such a high level of competition yet Foley is excited
by the prospects
“Tonia Couch and Claire Blencowe, training for the
10m Platform Synchro, gave a great routine during our mock
competition and we were judging pretty harshly as well.
“The squad contains six first-timers and they’re
still quite young, with the eldest being just 19, but one
of our aims is to make sure these athletes learn from this
experience for the future. They have to show me what they’re
made of.
“We’re capable of some very good results but
the youngsters are going to have to handle the pressure at
the first time of asking and that’s going to be difficult.
It’s a learning curve but it doesn’t mean we’re
not going to demand the same high standards.”
However, Foley isn’t losing sight of the potential
the older members of the squad possess. Alongside Taylor and
Waterfield, Tony Ally and Mark Shipman (both Sheffield) also
bring heaps of experience and will be hoping to push for medal
positions.
“Our targets for this World Championships are two fold,”
said Foley. “We want to blood the youngsters but we’ll
also be aiming to win that elusive World medal. We’ve
medalled at most major events but the Worlds so far have eluded
us despite going agonisingly close two years ago in Barcelona.
“For the younger element it will be step two of 12
of their journey to competing at the London Olympics in 2012.
We don’t need them to set the world on fire in Montreal,
we need them at that stage of their careers when Beijing and
London come around.”
Foley is very optimistic about the future of British Diving
especially so soon after a successful Olympic Games in 2004.
“Just a year after Athens it’s great to have
this new focus as well as those that still serve the sport
so well,” he explained. “It’s a great credit
to our Junior Olympic Programme under the direction of Kim
White and it shows what a bright future the sport has in this
country.”
The British Diving World Championship squad comprises:
Claire Blencowe City of Sheffield
Tonia Couch Plymouth Diving
Brooke Graddon Plymouth Diving
Tandi Indergaard City of Leeds
Hayley Sage Beaumont Diving Academy
Louise Van Hoof Luton Kingfishers
Tony Ally City of Sheffield
Mark Shipman City of Sheffield
Ben Swain City of Sheffield
Leon Taylor City of Sheffield
Peter Waterfield Southampton
The 11th FINA World Championships will take
place in Montreal, Canada between 17th and 31st July 2005.
The championships incorporate swimming, diving, open water
swimming, synchronised swimming and water polo.
The diving events take place between 17th and 24th July at
the Parc Jean-Drapeau, an island in the middle of the St Lawrence
River.
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