DIVERS JUST MISS OUT IN MELBOURNE
Team England's divers were just out of medal contention on
the first night of action at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic
Centre.
Despite challenging for the bronze in the 1m Springboard
event, a misjudged final dive for Southampton's Peter Waterfield
edged him into fourth to finish with 751.80 points. Alexandre
Despatie of Canada won gold in 853.50, Yeoh Ken of Malaysia
took silver with 844.95 points and Australia's Steven Barnett
was bronze medallist with 777.85 points.
"I missed my hardest dive," explained Waterfield.
"When it goes well its fantastic, but when it doesn't
it looks horrible.
"Its not my main event, I'm using it to warm up, but
I'm disappointed not to medal. I'll get it right for my 10m
though as I try to defend my title."
In the same event, 19-year-old Ben Swain (City of Sheffield)
showed promise as he finished a credible sixth with 711.35
points and Gareth Jones (Southampton) finished tenth with
607.50.
In the other final of the evening, the women's 10m Synchro
Platform, both new English pairings of Tonia Couch (Plymouth)
and Stacie Powell (Southampton) and Sarah Barrow and Brooke
Graddon (both Plymouth) were pushed into fourth and fifth
place with 290.46 and 275.91 points respectively.
A silver was in sight for Couch and Powell, who have only
been training together since the end of last year, but poor
marks on their final two dives dropped them out of medal contention.
"That was a good performance for us," said Powell.
"We've only been training together for four months and
this is only our second competition. It's new for us and we
have to be happy with that performance. We would have liked
a medal, but it's probably too early."
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