Driscoll left flying solo to earn European silver at Baku

Great Britain trampoline No 1 Kat Driscoll seized her chance to snare a rare solo medal as she won silver at the European Games in Baku.
Athletes compete during men's cycling road race in the old city of Baku at the 2015 European Games.Athletes compete during men's cycling road race in the old city of Baku at the 2015 European Games.
Athletes compete during men's cycling road race in the old city of Baku at the 2015 European Games.

The seven-time world medallist has achieved most of her success in team and synchro disciplines, but relished the opportunity to strike out alone in the Azerbaijani capital.

Driscoll scored 53.910 points to finish behind Russian gold medallist Yana Pavlova, with Hanna Harchonak of Belarus taking bronze.

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Driscoll said: “This ranks pretty highly up there – it’s only the second individual medal I’ve won on either the world or European stage.

“I knew I was capable of winning a medal when I came out here looking at the field, but you can’t control everything and I was just concentrating on delivering a technical performance that was strong and would challenge.”

In the junior diving competition, Katherine Torrance and Matty Lee took their team’s European Games gold medal tally to three with victories at the Baku Aquatics Centre.

The 16-year-old Torrance triumphed in the women’s 3m springboard while 17-year-old Lee stormed to men’s platform gold.

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Torrance said: “It means everything to win gold. It is a step forwards in the right direction, because if you can do it here you can do it wherever. It gives me a lot of confidence.”

Gymnasts Hannah Baughn and Ryan Bartlett added to the bronze they had won on Friday with two more bronze medals in the non-Olympic dynamic and balance acrobatic disciplines.

Baughn said: “We were hoping we would get one medal, but it all depends on the routines you do. We pulled out five solid routines so we’re really happy.”

Antony Fowler labelled his unanimous decision defeat to Italy’s Salvatore Caballero “a joke” after crashing out in the opening round of the middleweight boxing competition.

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The Liverpool 24-year-old appeared to dictate the opening round of the contest, but his sharper work drew no favours from the judges, who all scored every round in favour of his 19-year-old opponent. Fowler said: “I’m just devastated. It puts me off amateur boxing. I thought the new system would score aggression positively but the kid was just running away and surviving and I thought it was a joke to be honest.”

Fowler will now have to regroup and focus on the European Championships in August which act as a qualifier for the worlds in Qatar, which will boost Fowler’s hopes of reaching Rio Olympics.

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