DALEY AND ALDRIDGE GO HEAD-TO-HEAD WITH IDOLS
Olympic silver medalists Leon Taylor and Peter Waterfield
will go head-to-head with young diving sensation Tom Daley
and partner Blake Aldridge with a place on the British Diving
team and Olympic qualification at stake.
Athens medalists Taylor and Waterfield must beat the young
pretenders to guarantee a place on the British squad bound
for the FINA Diving World Cup in February where Britain will
aim to qualify places at the Beijing Olympics.
The British Diving Championships in Manchester (4th to 6th
January) is the third and final selection meet for the nation's
synchronised diving teams and with a victory to each pairing
already from two previous rounds it will go down to the wire
to see who has the right to fight for Britain's Olympic place.
Taylor (City of Sheffield) and Waterfield (Southampton Diving)
won the 10m Synchro event at Britain versus Germany meet in
November and then earlier this month Daley (Plymouth Diving)
and new team mate Aldridge (Southampton Diving) beat their
more experienced team mates to level the score in Canada.
National Performance Director Steve Foley is excited about
the prospect of competition with so much at stake but he has
confidence in whichever pairing comes out on top.
"We knew we had a good combination in Daley and Callum
Johnstone (City of Leeds) but we wanted to see Daley with
Aldridge and they exceeded all our expectations," said
Foley. "Their performance in Canada was fantastic.
"What I find really exciting is that we now have real
depth of talent in diving in Britain. The women's 10m and
now the men's 10m are very competitive and its raising the
standard of the sport in the UK all of the time.
Daley (13), who was crowned BBC Young Sports Personality
of Year earlier this month, is rapidly gaining in experience
both at home and abroad, and he will push his mentor Taylor
all of the way in Manchester.
"It will be a great spectacle to see two talented teams
going head-to-head," said Foley, "but for me it
doesn't matter who qualifies. Whoever comes through at the
end, I have great confidence they will qualify Britain for
the Olympics in the 10m Synchro in February.
"The performances of both pairings in Montreal last
month were impressive. They beat the World Championship bronze
medalists from America and pushed each other all the way to
the final dive.
"Taylor is coming back from injury and hasn't had the
opportunity to dive regularly with Waterfield so they in Manchester
they'll be tougher to beat. In saying that though, Daley and
Aldridge are a new team have had more time to work together
so once again it could go either way.
"Competition will be fierce in Manchester but the focus
is to take the best team possible to Beijing in February to
qualify Britain for the Olympics."
The men's 10m is the only synchro event yet to have been
decided. In the women's 10m synchro Sarah Barrow (Plymouth
Diving) and Monique McCarroll (Southampton Diving) have qualified,
Ben Swain and Nick Robinson Baker (both City of Sheffield)
have earned the men's 3m synchro places, and Tandi Gerrard
(City of Leeds) and Hayley Sage (City of Sheffield) will go
in the women's 3m synchro.
All spots are available for the individual events with the
country's best divers competing for two places off each of
the boards.
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