Penman silver signs off European springboard successes

[Article images courtesy of European Aquatics]

Ben Cutmore and Desharne Bent-Ashmeil started Britain’s medal count in Antalya with Mixed 3m Synchro bronze - a result matched by Hugo Thomas and Leon Baker in the Men’s 3m Synchro before Bent-Ashmeil teamed up with Amy Rollinson for Women’s 3m Springboard bronze on the European stage.

Aberdeen Diving Club’s Noah Penman won his first individual senior European medal with a strong performance in the Men’s 3m Springboard contest on the final day of the championships. Moving up into the medal positions in the fifth round courtesy of 83.30 points scored for his Inward 3 1/2 Somersaults Tuck (407C) – the second highest scoring dive recorded in the final – Penman delivered a composed final dive to complete his list and win the silver medal with a total of 429.70 points.

Matthew Dixon, a bronze medallist in 2024, finished fifth after putting together his own admirably steady set of dives to place just two points off the podium places

“I was kind of coming here to get experience of being in a senior competition, I wasn’t really expecting to get a medal, I was hoping just to put out my best performance and go through my dives.” Said Penman,

“Staying consistent throughout the whole day – I’m very pleased with how I did that. Matthew and I were right up with the best divers in Europe during that competition, so it was really great.

“It does feel a bit scary when some of these big guys are doing the hard dives and I’ve got a bit of an easier list. But it shows that if you do them well then you can still be up there. So to nail all my dives – I’m so pleased to come away with a medal here in Antalya.”

Entering the championships as defending champions in the Mixed 3m Synchro and Women’s 3m Synchro, Ben Cutmore, Desharne Bent-Ashmeil and Amy Rollinson returned to the podium in successive years with bronze medals across the events thanks to steely consistency which saw the respective pairs sit within the top three places throughout the rounds.

Reflecting on their performance, Rollinson commented: “I’d say it’s a mixture of emotions. Obviously we are slightly disappointed. But I think considering the prep we had before we arrived – I think I had two weeks’ training probably since my last event – to come out here and still come away with a medal, I’m still really happy with it.

“In that situation [of scores being tight in the final round] I don’t know the exact score we needed but I’d seen that the Italians had done a good dive so I knew we needed something just as big to stay above them.”

Meanwhile, Leon Baker and Hugo Thomas joined forces to earn their spot on a European podium with an eye-catching list in the Men’s 3m Synchro.

The impetus created by an outstanding fifth-round effort - where they nailed their highest value dive, a 3.5 degree difficulty Reverse 3 1/2 Somersaults Tuck (307C) – briefly put the British duo up into the lead, before holding out for bronze behind the German and Italian teams.

Speaking afterwards to European Aquatics, Thomas said: “I think we had a pretty good performance over the whole list so I felt we were pretty confident and we knew we were up there fighting for it.

“I think even after our fifth-round score then it was still up to what everyone else did as well. We still had one more dive to go so we knew that if it was a strong and steady dive it would get us onto the podium so we just had to stay calm.”

Baker added: “I think the main takeaway for us is that we were right up there with some of the most experience divers in the world, you know, they’d been to the Olympics and world championships, so I think for us it makes us so happy to know we are right up there.”

Attention now turns for Britain’s leading divers to the 2025 Aquatics GB Diving Championships at Sandwell Aquatics Centre, with spectator tickets to the action across 5th-8th June currently on sale.

Full results from the 11 British Divers selected for the 2025 European Aquatic Diving Championships can be found below, with extended details on the European Aquatics website.

Aquatics GB results at the European Aquatics Diving Championships (22nd-28th May 2025):

Thursday 22nd May

Mixed Team Event: Matthew Dixon, Hannah Newbrook, Amy Rollinson and Robbie Wood - SIXTH

Friday 23rd May

Mixed 3m Synchro: Ben Cutmore and Desharne Bent-Ashmeil - BRONZE

Saturday 24th May

Men’s 3m Synchro: Hugo Thomas and Leon Baker – BRONZE

Women’s 10m Platform: Hannah Newbrook – 9th

Sunday 25th May

Women’s 3m Synchro Desharne Bent-Ashmeil and Amy Rollinson - BRONZE

Men’s 10m Platform: Ben Cutmore – 5th | Robbie Wood – 8th

Monday 26th May

Mixed 10m Synchro: Hannah Newbrook and Robbie Wood – 6th

Men’s 1m Springboard: Hugo Thomas – 11th | Leon Baker – 14th

Tuesday 27th May

Men’s 10m Synchro: Robbie Lee and Kyle Kothari – 6th

Women’s 3m Springboard: Amy Rollinson – 8th | Desharne Bent-Ashmeil – 13th

Wednesday 28th May

Men’s 3m Springboard: Noah Penman – SILVER | Matthew Dixon – 5th

Coverage of the European Aquatics Diving Championships remains available to watch back on on the Eurovision Sport platform.