NEW PAIRING TAKE FIRST DIVING MEDAL
Tandi Indergaard and Hayley Sage got Team England's diving
medal hunt off the board with a splash when they won a bronze
in the women's synchronised 3m springboard competition at
the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games this morning.
Indergaard, from Leeds, and Sage from Hertford finished third
with a total of 270.63 points, 25.44 behind the gold medal
winners, Bree Cole and Charleen Stratton of Australia.
The British champions had two "wobbly" dives in
rounds two and three but recovered their form to claim a place
on the podium, missing a silver medal by less than three points.
Canada's Melanie Rinaldi and Rebecca Barras finished second
with 273.72.
"It hasn't sunk in yet," said the 28-year-old Indergaard,
who was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. "I'm really
excited because it's a new team.
"Rounds two and three were a bit wobbly but we pulled
it back. We had to fight for that medal. We made a mistake
on our second dive which hurt our score but we came back strongly."
Sage is one of the team's newest members. At 19, this is the
student's first senior international medal.
"I am shell shocked," she said. "We are just
so happy. We just had to try and stay focused.
"We are quite new as a partnership and have worked so
hard in training. It's great to win something in our first
event."
The team's two youngest prospects were also competing this
morning. Sixteen-year-old Claire Blencowe and 15-year-old
Katie Hamilton finished fifth on their major Games debut.
The Sheffield pair scored 248.25.
Indergaard and Sage will both compete in the 3m springboard
individual event on Saturday, while Indergaard is also in
the 1m springboard on Friday.
Peter Waterfield, Ben Swain and Gareth Jones all qualified
for tonight's final of the men's 1m springboard. Waterfield
from Southampton qualified fourth in this morning's preliminaries
with 369.35.
Swain, a 19-year-old form Sheffield, was sixth, and Jones,
21, from Southampton, was ninth.
|
