Asia is proving a happy hunting ground for British divers in 2019, as the team won a further two medals on day two of the FINA Diving World Series in Beijing.
Just like in the opening leg of 2019 in Japan last week, Jack Laugher, Grace Reid and Tom Daley were amongst the medals, the former taking bronze in the Men’s 3m Springboard, whilst Reid and Daley combined to win the same colour of medal in the Mixed 3m Synchro.
After winning bronze in the final event of the Sagamihara leg, Reid and Daley continued their good form inside Beijing’s infamous Water Cube, as they once again secured a medal with their final dive. In another closely fought competition, the London based duo were always in the shake up for the minor medals, China’s Hao Yang and Yani Chang out in front, and duly delivered with a brilliant final dive.
Nailing a Front 3 ½ Somersault Pike (107B), their fifth and final dive, the GB pair saw off the challenge of Australia and Germany for bronze, with Canada claiming silver.
Of the pair’s performance, Daley said:
“I’m really happy with the performance today by me and Grace. We changed our dive list compared with what we did in Japan, as in Japan we used a Reverse 2 ½ Somersault Pike instead of a Back 2 ½ Somersault Pike, so we made a little change and we were really happy with it.
“It was a solid, steady performance – there was nothing crazily good and there was nothing that was crazily bad - it was just solid and consistent diving, which is exactly what you need at a World Series event, so we’re looking forward to the next one now. Onwards to the individual 10m Platform tomorrow.”
Leeds’ Jack Laugher also replicated his performance in Japan to take individual bronze on the springboard, improving his score by some 10 points from his last outing. A great first four dives put the Olympic champion in a strong position for a medal, but he couldn’t do enough to overhaul Chinese duo Yuan Cao and Siyi Xie, who made the most of the home crowd support.
Nevertheless, having missed the Diving World Series in 2018 to recover from injury, three medals from the first two legs is a good haul for the 2018 European Diver of the Year.
Also in action was Ross Haslam, who made a big step up after his World Series debut last weekend, qualifying for the final with a brilliant 442.05 points score. In his first final at this level the Sheffield diver acquitted himself well, with a strong opening to his dive card, eventually taking sixth place.
Earlier in the day Reid and Kat Torrance were both in action in the Women’s 3m Springboard semi-finals, the pair finishing sixth and fifth in their respective pools, just short of the top three spots needed for a place in the final.
Full results from the action so far can be found here.
The diving resumes on Saturday for the final day, with full coverage available on FINA TV and updates across our social media channels.
Why not join us in London this May for the finale of the 2019 FINA/CNSG Diving World Series and witness world class diving for yourself at the iconic Aquatics Centre on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park - click here to book tickets.