GERMANY COMPLETE CLEAN SWEEP
Germany dominated the first day of competition of the KlingerCook
Trophy taking home all available gold medals.
With Olympic medallists Leon Taylor and Peter Waterfield
not competing in the finals, the young British squad stood
up and showed their promise with some confident performances.
Young diving prospect Thomas Daley qualified for the final
of the men's 10m individual in first place proving his potential
and talent.
The final saw Daley come out hard with an impressive first
dive (reverse 2 ½ somersaults ticked) to claim the
first nines of the competition. He kept up with the German
competitors but after missing his entry on the inward 3 ½
somersaults tucked Norman Becker went further into the lead.
Daley pushed into second place with his fifth dive, claiming
nines across the board for his back 3 ½ somersaults
tucked.
Becker secured gold with his back 2 ½ somersaults
1 ½ twists piked in the final round with a score of
440.20.
"I am very happy with this result," he said. "It
was great to win gold. Thomas is diving very well and I was
very impressed with him today. I have had good preparation
and my best dive was my reverse 2 ½ somersaults piked.
Ponds Forge is a great pool and there was a great atmosphere
today."
Daley took silver with 433.90 and Britain's Blake Aldridge
performed impressively throughout the final to take bronze
with 425.65.
"I know I could have done better in the final,"
Daley said. "I am a bit disappointed not to have got
gold but it is always good to medal. I know what I need to
do to perform better and I am going to learn from this performance.
It is great that I have had the opportunity in the past couple
of months to compete against the World's best, I know I can
learn from them.
"It was the first time I have used my harder list of
dives in a competition and I know that after I have perfected
the list I will be able to get higher marks in all of the
dives. I am happy with most of them but I think that Andy
[Banks] and I can now build on them. Camo is the next step
for me and I will be aiming for more consistency in my dives."
A closely fought final was found in the men's 3m synchro
when Olympic medallist Andreas Wels and Tobias Schellenberg
were looking to kick start their campaign for Olympic qualification.
British pairing of Nicholas Robinson-Baker and Ben Swain
went into the final looking to continue their success from
the FINA Diving World Series and started well with the same
scores as both of the German pairs.
Wels and Schellenberg took charge of the competition in the
third round with their reverse 1 ½ somersaults 3 ½
twists free position and showed their class and continued
to dive consistently to take gold with 397.41.
"We are really pleased with this victory it was great
for us for building confidence," said Schellenberg. "It
was our first competition since the World Championships because
we have been hit by injuries. I missed the World Series which
was a disappointment but it felt good being back today.
"We finished third in the World Championships and this
has qualified Germany with a place at the Beijing Olympics
and now me and Tobias need to focus on qualifying at the German
Nationals."
Roinson-Baker and Swain appeared to save the best until last
with their reverse 2 ½ somersaults 1 ½ twists
piked to take silver with 395.67 just two points behind the
Olympic medallists. Christian Loffler and Frank Sandler (Germany)
took bronze with a score of 371 79.
"We went into this event feeling relaxed and we just
wanted to enjoy ourselves and our aim was to go one better
than the FINA Diving World Series," Robinson-Baker said.
"I believe we did that here. We got a good score and
I am pleased with the performance."
"After the World Series we knew that we had a chance
for qualification for Beijing so we knew we had to focus and
we have been working with psychologists and each other to
improve," Swain said.
"I also knew I had to get stronger. Nick is stronger
than I am and I was working on that so I have been in a nine
week phase of weight training and I took one week off to prepare
for this event and I think the result was great. Our consistency
was good and we know what we need to work on to improve further."
The women's 10m final saw World Championship medallist Nora
Subschinski and her partner Christin Steuer claim an impressive
gold medal ahead of the British pairings of Stacie Powell
and Tonia Couch and Sarah Barrow and Monique McCarroll.
All pairings were on a level footing until the third round
when the Germans brought out an impressive back 2 ½
somersaults 1 ½ twists piked and took the lead. The
final rounds were still close but the Germans put it out of
touch of the British teams with a final score of 308.28.
"We are really happy to have won the gold today,"
Subschinski said. "This is our first competition together,
my usual synchro partner has injured her hand and so we tried
this pairing. I was nervous going into the first dive but
it felt good and we had good synchronisation in our dives."
Barrow and McCarroll finished in second place with a score
of 303.96 closely followed by Powell and Couch with 300.24.
"We have been competing together for a year and a half
now and it felt good today," said McCarroll. "We
had a really good last dive and it is by far our favourite
and that is why we leave it until last.
"We are really happy to have got a medal today but this
is the first step in our World cup preparation. We are off
to Camo next and our focus is on doing well there."
Germany's Nora Subshinskitook her second gold of the day
after dominating the women's 3m final with impressive dives
throughout the event. The World Championship medallist took
the lead in the second round with her forward 3 ½ somersaults
piked.
Subschinski claimed gold with 313.95 and her team-mate Katja
Dieckow took silver with 310.70. Britain's Jodie McGroarty
finished third to claim bronze with 284.20 points.
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