The opening day of the British Diving Championships saw four domestic titles handed out, Kat Torrance and James Heatly backing up their prelim performances to strike Edinburgh gold.
City of Leeds’ Kat Torrance dominated her final after claiming the number one spot in the opening round with her Inward 1 ½ Somersaults Piked (403B) and remained unchallenged for the title from there on in.
She delivered her best dive in the fifth and final round, a Forward 2 ½ Somersaults Piked (105B), which scored 55.90 and sealed the title and Women’s 1m gold medal
Commenting on her performance Torrance said:
“Yeah that was pretty good. The score’s not bad, 264, I probably would’ve hoped for a bit higher. I think I didn’t quite deliver on some of my dives, they weren’t quite where I wanted them to be but overall I’m happy with that result, especially considering we’ve been away with the World Series.
“I’ve still got the 3m and then 3m Synchro, everything’s been ticking over quite nicely. Me and Grace have been doing lots of synchro training recently so I’m looking forward to seeing how that goes tomorrow.”
Torrance was joined on the podium by Dive London’s Scarlett Mew Jensen who took the silver medal with a score of 243.70 and bronze went to rising star Desharne Bent-Ashmeil from Crystal Palace Diving, her final points total was 232.80.
James Heatly claimed his first senior individual British title in the Men’s 1m Springboard final after navigating the six round final. He felt nerves may have got the better of him slightly in the morning prelims.
However Heatly returned to the Commonwealth Pool composed and ready to compete, managing to increase his score by more than 30 points to secure himself the gold medal, 390.00 his final tally.
Reflecting on the result, Heatly said:
“I’m really happy, it was a bit short of my PB but it’s also my first ever individual British title so I can’t really complain, very happy.
“This morning I think I was a little nervous, it’s been a while since I’ve done a one metre event, it took me two dives to settle in so going into the finals I think I just felt a lot more comfortable and felt I know what I was doing.”
Looking back more broadly on his 2019 so far, Heatly added:
“This year I’ve had a new hurdle and a few new dives but National Cup at the beginning of the year was a bit disappointing but then I went on to the Grand Prix’s and got a massive PB. The fact that I’ve been able to build on that here with this gold, I’m over the moon and hopefully I can continue onwards and upwards.”
Jamaica’s Yona Knight-Wisdom claimed guest silver whilst Sheffield’s Jordan Houlden was the GB silver medallist, their point’s totals, 362.60 and 357.1 respectively. Southampton Diving Academy’s Cameron Gammage took the bronze with 318.40 points.
The Men’s 3m Synchro final saw a host of partnerships take to the highest of the springboards but it was the new for 2019 partnership of Anthony Harding from the City of Leeds and Jordan Holden from City of Sheffield that claimed top spot on the British Championships podium.
Harding and Houlden held their nerve against experienced synchro pairs to notch a score of 381.9 and claimed gold in the Scottish capital.
Jack Laugher and Dan Goodfellow were the silver medallists with a score of 370.92 and completing the podium line up were the Haslam brothers, Ross and Jack. They took the bronze medal with a score of 342.48.
The Women’s 10m Synchro final saw only three pairs in action. The City of Leeds and Plymouth Diving joined forces through Phoebe Banks and Emily Martin, they claimed the British title with a score of 280.35.
Whilst Diving World Series bronze medallists Eden Cheng and Lois Toulson were nudged into the silver medal spot, 270.66 points was their total at the conclusion of five rounds of diving. Crystal Palace pairing of Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix and Josie Zillig settled for bronze.
Click here to view and download detailed results of all the action from the British Diving Championships 2019.
Tickets are still available and can be bought either on the door at the Royal Commonwealth Pool, plus more information about the event is available here.