Young British diver Thomas Daley proved his potential at his first international competition with a top 12 finish at the age of just 12.

The Plymouth Diving youngster was in action on day one of the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal and progressed to the semi-finals with an 11th place in the preliminaries from a world-class field of 22.

Daley scored 352.30 from his first six dives off the 10m Platform to make the semi-final and then delivered a performance of quality and consistency to finish with 395.95 and 10th place overall.

“Tom did a great job out there in what is his first international meet,” said British Diving National Performance Director Steve Foley. “He showed more and more as the competition progressed and was impressive in the semi-final where he looked like he belonged.

“This meet for Tom is about gaining experience and continuing his development. He’s young and it will be a gradual process but this is a great start to what we hope will be a successful international career for him.”
 
Daley is one of five British divers in action throughout the four-day meet with Ben Swain (City of Sheffield), Jodie McGroarty (City of Sheffield), Sarah Barrow (Plymouth Diving) and
Monique McCarroll (Southampton Diving Academy) also competing.

McGroarty just missed out on a place in the semi-finals with a 14th place finish in the preliminary round of the 3m and a score of 250.45. A total of 252 would have seen McGroarty progress.

Day two of the Canadian Grand Prix sees Swain go in the Men’s 3m event while Barrow and McCarroll will both contest the Women’s 10m event.

British divers will be in action next week at the US Grand Prix in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

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The Canadian FINA Diving Grand Prix takes place in Montreal between 3rd and 6th May 2007.

The British squad comprises:

Ben Swain (City of Sheffield)
Thomas Daley (Plymouth Diving)
Jodie McGroarty (City of Sheffield)
Sarah Barrow (Plymouth Diving)
Monique McCarroll (Southampton Diving Academy)

For further details contact Dave Richards, British Swimming Media Manager, on 01509 632237, 0778 992 6136 or email dave.richards@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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