BRITISH PERFORMANCE ANNOUNCES STRONG OLYMPIC INTENT
British athletes Ben Swain and Nick Robinson-Baker delivered
a clear message to the upper echelons of the diving world
order in announcing themselves as real Olympic contenders
with a powerful display on day one of the FINA World Cup in
Beijing.
The City of Sheffield pair gave the performance of their
careers to date in the Men's 3m Synchro to signal the fact
a synchronised partnership barely a year old has all the makings
of becoming a real threat for an Olympic medal.
In the highest quality of company, Swain and Robinson-Baker
showed real nerve, ability and understanding under intense
pressure to rise meteorically through the world rankings for
a fourth place finish - just two points off bronze.
With fourth place also securing Olympic qualification, it
capped off a memorable day in the Water Cube with British
divers Stacie Powell (Southampton) and Brooke Graddon (Plymouth)
also qualifying Britain for two places in the Women's 10m
Platform semi-final.
Swain and Robinson-Baker came through the preliminary round
of 22 teams to qualify 11th in the final 12 but from their
first dive of tonight's final they cut through the field with
a display fuelled by confidence.
They finished the second and third rounds in fourth place
following a well executed forward three-and-a-half somersault
in the pike position before slipping to fifth on the next
round.
Unnerved, they saved their best to the very end to mount
a challenge for a medal while World Championship medallists
Germany and the likes of highly fancied Australia, the Ukraine
and the USA failed to make an impression on their lead.
A reverse two-and-a-half, one-and-a-half twists put the Brits
on the same score as Russian legends Dmitry Sautin and Yuriy
Kunakov with one dive to go and despite pushing them to the
limit with a forward two-and-a-half, with two twists that
drew a score of 81.60, the experience of Sautin kept the Russians
on the podium.
Gold went to favourites Wang Feng and Qin Kai of China with
462.12, the Russians took silver with 418.65 and the Canadian
pair took bronze with 416.94 with Britain just short of a
medal with 414.87.
For Robinson-Baker, who sat out last year's World Championships
through injury, tonight's result is a testament to the training
endured over the past 12 months.
"It's an amazing feeling, to qualify for the Olympics,
to beat world championship medallists and get so close to
the Olympic champions shows how far we've come and it's down
to the hard work we've both put in," said Robinson-Baker.
"We didn't just scrape in either, we beat some established
teams out there because we held it together throughout, we
didn't miss a dive and our score reflects that.
"You go through years and years of training for nights
like these. With six months to go to the Games it's a perfect
place for us to be. I'm disappointed we came close but didn't
get a medal but you have to look at where we came from and
we now know where we need to be in August."
Despite such a high stake factor to the event, it was the
pair's relaxed approach that Swain feels was the difference
in doing so well.
"It's the strangest event I've ever competed in. The
pressure is so great but we both just really enjoyed ourselves.
We loved every minute of it, felt relaxed throughout and couldn't
wait for our next round of dives," said Swain.
"Anything is possible in this sport, you can't predict
what the others teams are going to do but in that respect
it helps you to just focus on your performance and we did
that so well."
National Performance Director Steve Foley was overwhelmed
by the result but feels there is more to come from the pairing
which will now focus on preparing for a chance of an Olympic
medal.
"These guys are a relatively new team and what they've
done today is simply amazing. This is a World Cup, it's a
sudden death Olympic qualification meet and they've stood
there against the best in the world and showed they belong
in that company," said Foley.
"They comfortably left the best of the best behind them
and narrowly missed out on a podium finish. They weren't supposed
to do that but they did because they had belief based on the
hours and hours they spend training together.
"It shows what we're doing is working, they've focused
on their synchro event and it's paid off. It's hard not to
get excited about these guys, they've shown how good they
are and they have to be regarded as Olympic contenders given
the company they've outshone tonight."
Stacie Powell (Southampton Diving) and Brooke Graddon (Plymouth)
delivered Britain's first qualifications of the World Cup
with top 18 finishes and a place in the Women's 10m semi-final.
From a preliminary round of 47 athletes, Powell finished
14th with a score of 313.20 while Graddon was just behind
with 310.90 to finish in 17th place.
Both will be in action tomorrow with the top 18 competing
in the 10m semi-final and they'll be looking for higher scores
now the pressure of securing Olympic qualification for Great
Britain is off.
Britain's first Olympic qualification went to Pete Waterfield
(Southampton) at the World Championships in Melbourne last
year in the Men's 10m.
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