Britain’s divers signed off from their World Championship campaign with a solid performance from the women’s 3m synchro pairing.

Tandi Gerrard (City of Leeds) and Hayley Sage (City of Sheffield) teamed up for their second successive World Championships, finishing eighth in what was a strong field that failed to feature the Canadian Olympic bronze medallists Blythe Hartley and Emilie Heymans in the final.

With little to separate the final 12 pairings, the British athletes were pleased with their final position.

“We’re really happy with our performance,” said Gerrard. “The competition was of a very high standard and everyone was being pushed all the way. It’s a new P.B. for us so we’re pleased.”

“The standard of diving has risen since the last World Championships. The Canadian pairing went out in the preliminary round so that just proves how hard the competition has been this year.”

Gerrard and Sage finished with a total 294.36 points. Only 60 points separated the top eight, with gold going to the Chinese divers Minxia Wu and Jingjing Guo with 355.80 points, giving the 2008 Olympic host nation their eighth gold medal of the Championships.

The German pair of Ditte Kotzian and Heike Fischer took silver with 318.45 with bronze going to Briony Cole and Sharleen Stratton of Australia with 313.14 points.

The Brits were fully prepared for the competition, and they feel that this was reflected in their performance.

“We went into the competition feeling as ready as possible,” said Sage.” This is a major international meet and we are really happy with the way things went and it is a fantastic way to end the championships.”

-ENDS-

The 12th FINA World Championships will take place from 17th March until 1st April 2007.

The British Diving squad comprises:

Tonia Couch (Plymouth)
Tandi Gerrard (City of Leeds)
Jodie McGroarty (City of Sheffield)
Stacie Powell (Southampton Diving)
Hayley Sage (City of Sheffield)

Blake Aldridge (Southampton Diving) 
Ben Swain (City of Sheffield)
Gareth Jones (Southampton)
Nicholas Robinson-Baker (City of Sheffield)
Leon Taylor (City of Sheffield)  
Peter Waterfield (Southampton Diving)

Diving events take place from 19th to 26th March.

Swimming takes place from 25th March to 1st April.

Open Water takes place from 18th to 25th March.

Synchro takes place from 17th to 24th March

For further details contact Stephanie West, ASA Media Assistant, on 01509 632236, or email stephanie.west@swimming.org

British Swimming is the National Governing Body for Swimming, Diving, Synchronised Swimming, Water Polo and Open Water in Great Britain.  It is responsible internationally for the high performance representation of the sport. The members of British Swimming are the three Home Countries national governing bodies of England (Amateur Swimming Association), Scotland (Scottish Amateur Swimming Association) and Wales. (Welsh Amateur Swimming Association)  British Swimming seeks to enable its athletes to achieve gold medal success at the Olympics, Paralympics, World Championships and Commonwealth Games.

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