BRITAIN CLAIMS TWO GOLD ON FINAL DAY OF COMPETITION
Britain secured two gold medals on the final day of competition
at the KlingerCook Trophy in Sheffield.
The first final of the day saw Olympic medallists Leon Taylor
and Peter Waterfield come back from injury to claim an impressive
gold in the men's 10m synchro.
Young British pairing Thomas Daley and Callum Johnstone took
an early lead in the event with their first two dives. But
the experience of the Olympic pair shone through in the third
round with their inward 3 ½ somersaults tucked to put
them in the lead.
Daley and Johnstone kept up with the Olympic pairing scoring
highly in each round and almost stole the lead in the fifth
round with their back 3 ½ somersaults tucked but Waterfield
and Taylor went further ahead with their harder tariff dive
of reverse 3 ½ somersaults tucked.
It went to the last round and Taylor and Waterfield performed
one of the hardest dives - the back 2 ½ somersaults,
2 ½ twists piked and took the gold with a total of
421.62.
"It is great to get gold here today," Waterfield
said. "It is good to take a step in the right direction.
This has given us more confidence in the lead up to qualification
to Beijing.
"I performed better than yesterday and that was great.
We are both back after injuries and for us to get that sort
of a score is fantastic."
"There is a lot of pressure on us but we know what we
need to do to improve," Taylor added. "It is great
to get the ball rolling but there is a lot of work for us
to do before the World Cup in February - which is the last
chance for us to qualify for the Olympics."
The young British pairing claimed silver just 11 points behind
the Olympians with 410.34
"It was amazing to be diving against Olympic medallists,"
Johnstone said. "We have always admired Leon and Pete
and to have kept up with them was great for both of us. Our
confidence as a pairing is growing. We have just returned
from a training camp in Texas which was good preparation for
us
"Our aim was to come here and get over 400 and keep
as close to Leon and Pete as possible and we were only 11
points behind. It felt awesome today and we are really happy
to have taken silver."
"We are happy but there is always room for improvement
unless you win," Daley added. "It felt good today,
our synchronisation was good and now we just need to raise
our tariff and we will be able to get higher scores."
Bronze went to German pairing Christian Picker and Sascha
Klein with 378.12 points.
The women's platform final saw the British team put in some
excellent performances to claim gold and silver.
Tonia Couch qualified first from the preliminaries and started
the final with confidence claiming eights across the board
from her first dive - Inward 2 ½ somersaults piked.
She dominated the rounds and secured gold with 72 points in
the fourth round. She finished with a total of 346.35.
"I have been working on my confidence on the boards
recently," Couch said. "I have been attacking the
boards when I go up there and treating it with a new found
confidence. I believe in myself and the way I can perform
the dives. This has shone through today and took me from a
good performance in the prelims to gold in the final.
"The final was very nerve wracking, but after my performance
this morning I just knew I had to go out and do it again.
I am so happy to get gold. It was great to get consistency
in my dives. I have had good preparation and I have been working
on 10m everyday which has helped me."
Germany's Christin Steuer battled hard claiming good scores
but missed her back armstand with three somersaults tucked
and gave Brooke Graddon the chance to take second place.
Graddon kept her cool and performed an excellent back 2 ½
somersaults to take the lead over the German and claim silver
with 328.35.
"I found that very nerve-wracking," Graddon said.
" I have been out for six months this year and it has
been really tough getting back into it but going out and getting
those scores was great. It is good to be back and I was really
happy with all of my dives.
"I have had great preparation going into this. I am
happy to have got that performance under my belt because I
can know build on it and develop further."
The Women's 3m synchro saw the British pairing of Tandi Gerrard
and Rebecca Gallantree looking to go one better than the FINA
Diving World Series and take victory from the German pairing
of Katja Dieckow and Nora Subschinski.
The British pair started strongly and took the lead early
on with their front pike gaining good scores from all of the
judges. But the Germans came back with the forward 2 ½
somersaults 1 twists piked and scored well to take the lead.
The Germans dominated from then on and claimed gold with
a total of 291 points.
"We are happy to get gold here today," Dieckow
said. "It is a good score for us but we wanted to get
over 300. Our focus is now on the German Nationals where we
know we need to improve synchronisation, to do this we will
train together more at the moment we only meet once or twice
a month."
Gerrard and Gallantree finished strongly with their inward
2 ½ somersaults tucked and took silver with a total
of 270.06.
"We are a little bit disappointed with the result,"
Gerrard said. "It was our aim to come here and go one
better than the World Series, for us it was a re-match with
the German pairing. The score was good but we know we can
do better.
"Our synchronisation was good and is there but we just
need to sharpen up our finishing. We can go away and build
on this performance and improve for Nationals in January."
The new pairing of Jodie McGroarty and Hayley Sage claimed
bronze with 247.32. It was the first time the girls have dived
together at an international competition and both girls were
impressive after battling back from injury.
"It was a relief to get a competition under our belt,"
McGroarty said. "We know how we work in training but
it was a learning curve for us to see how we operate under
pressure. I dropped a dive and that was a disappointment but
it will push me to improve. We know how to develop as a pair
and so we can push forward for the next competition."
The Men's 3m individual saw a close fight for the top spot
between Germany's Andreas Wels and Britain's Nicholas Robinson-Baker.
Wels took an early lead with his forward 3 ½ somersaults
piked scoring eights and nines. Robinson-Baker battled on
and closed the gap after scoring highly in the fourth round
with his reverse 2 ½ somersaults 1 ½ twists
piked. But the Olympic diver Wels put it out of reach in the
fifth round with his inward 2 ½ somersaults tucked.
Wels took gold with a total of 452.80 and Robinson-Baker
claimed silver with a personal best score of 441.65.
"I was confident going into the final after my performance
yesterday," Robinson-Baker said. "I was diving well
and I knew I could perform like that again. But after my missed
dive in the prelims I was feeling a bit nervous about performing
that dive again but I used some of the techniques the sports
psychologists have taught us and they worked well. Tony Ally
was a great support for me too. He talked me through my preparation
for the final and helped to calm me down.
"I had better consistency in the final and that was
great to see. There is always room for improvement and I believe
I can get better scores in Camo.
Britain's Blake Aldridge claimed the third spot with an impressive
finish with his inward 2 ½ piked. He scored an impressive
total of 396.30 to take his second bronze medal of the competition.
"I am really happy I got through that," Aldridge
said. "I had a tough day of competition yesterday but
I performed well and I am happy with the result. I was going
to pull out but after speaking to the doctors and physios
I knew I wanted to compete. I have got the points to be able
to dive at the Olympic trials and that it great for me."
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