British Diving chief Alexei Evangulov has praised the form of his young diving team after it topped the medal table at the inaugural European Games with four golds in a six-medal haul.
The 11-strong team have been competing across the four days of competition in Baku and secured medals on each day. And the divers showed their massive potential for the future with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games as their main focus.
National Performance Director Evangulov congratulated his young crop of divers.
“Being on the top of the medal table is impressive and I think the whole team performed excellently,” Evangulov said. “I want to congratulate the Team Leader Julian Bellan and the whole team on their performance which showed they are some of the best young divers in Europe.
“The Russian team looked strong from day one but we showed that we have what it takes to win those medals and not only perform in the prelims but also in the finals. This is really promising not only for Tokyo 2020 but also beyond.
“I am really pleased to see the next generation of divers standing up and showing they are developing and learning very quickly. What’s also pleasing is the depth of talent that we had on show, we had two divers in each individual final and this will have taught those divers important lessons for the future.”
The first day saw Lois Toulson win gold in the 10m Platform. She was joined on the medal rostrum by James Heatly who took bronze in the 1m Springboard.
This was the first of a full clean sweep for Heatly who also won silver in the 3m Synchro with Ross Haslam and then gold in the 3m Springboard on the penultimate day of the diving competition.
The final day saw Katherine Torrance and Matty Lee secure two gold medals in the 3m Springboard and the 10m Platform respectively. Both athletes showed maturity beyond their years to take their gold medals.
Torrance was in second place until the final dive when she executed her Back 2 ½ Somersaults tucked excellently to take the lead. Lee lead throughout his final and showed his intent from his first dive after putting 86.40 points on the board.
Olympic bronze medallist Tom Daley has been enjoying the success from the young divers.
"It has been great to see the younger British divers challenging and winning medals in Baku. They’ve all done so well over there. Four gold medals is a fantastic result for them all.”
The British Divers competing in Baku are:
Millie Haffety City of Sheffield Diving Club
Ross Haslam City of Sheffield Diving Club
James Heatly Edinbrugh Diving Club
Jordan Houlden City of Sheffield Diving Club
Matty Lee City of Leeds Diving Club
Shanice Lobb Plymouth Diving
Lydia Rosenthall City of Leeds diving club
Katherine Torrance City of leeds diving.
Lois Toulson City of Leeds Diving Club
Millie Fowler City of Sheffield
Matthew Dixon Plymouth Diving
Photo courtesy of Nick Hope