Gladding caught up in selection row

City of Sheffield diver Gladding was yesterday handed her Olympic debut in Great Britain’s 12-member diving team just 16 months after she almost died following a freak accident at a meet in Russia.

The decision could yet be over-ruled though with Couch, who will go to London in the platform synchro, and her coach Andy Banks revealing their anger at the decision.

Couch was overlooked by a British Diving selection panel, headed by controversial performance director Alexei Evangulov, despite beating Gladding into third place at the British Gas Diving Championships – which doubled as the Olympic qualifiers – at the weekend.

Couch, who reached the 2008 Olympic final, had been left in tears after being informed of the decision on Sunday.

British Diving were last night still to receive official notification of an appeal, with Couch having 48 hours to lodge any complaint.

Banks made public their dissatisfaction yesterday, though, telling the BBC: “I feel, quite strongly, that she (Couch) has demonstrated over the course of this year that she is still the UK’s premier platform diver – she has been since 2008.”

Couch used her Twitter page to say: “Picked 4 syncro but not for individual. I dived my socks off with a PB and came 2nd, had the best year yet not been picked for 2012 #gutted.”

Gladding’s selection had loomed as an emotional choice after she almost died in February last year following a freak accident at a diving competition in Russia.

The City of Sheffield diver had to be dragged to safety from the bottom of the diving pool after she hit her head on the concrete 10m platform and plummeted unconscious into the water.

Remarkably, Gladding was back on diving’s highest board less than six months later before top-10 finishes at the World Cup and European Championships this year marked a stunning comeback.

Those results seemingly proved enough for the selectors to overlook the weekend result, after which the 30-year-old had admitted she had almost given up on reaching an Olympics.

“There was a definite moment when I started doubting it,” she said.“I had to really draw on something much deeper than I ever have before to get myself back and get the confidence back.

“It’s my third attempt at an Olympics. To be in London, after the year I’ve had – I’ve had to dig deeper than ever.”

Britain will take a full diving team to an Olympics for the first time this summer with former platform world champion Tom Daley the No 1 contender for a medal. The 18-year-old is in career-best form, after securing a personal best 565.05 when reclaiming the European Championship last month, and is set to offer the greatest challenge to the all-conquering Chinese with a home crowd in support.

“It’s going to be tough to get near them, they’re the best in the world, but I guess they will have to look out for me,” he said.

“The home advantage will be important too.”

Daley will compete in the individual and synchro platform alongside Pete Waterfield.

Couch was yesterday selected with 23-year-old Leeds diver Sarah Barrow in the 10m synchro.

Elsewhere, Rebecca Gallantree (Leeds) and Nick Robinson-Baker (Sheffield) were picked for their second Olympics while rising star Jack Laugher, the 17-year-old from Harrogate, heads a list of four teenagers heading to their first Games along with Leeds’s Hannah Starling, 16, Wakefield’s 15-year-old Alicia Blagg and Chris Mears.

Team GB Chef de Mission Andy Hunt hailed the achievements of Britain’s trio of women’s boxing stars after confirming the official selection of the 10-strong Olympic team in Sheffield yesterday.

Hunt believes Leeds’s Nicola Adams, Savannah Marshall and Natasha Jonas – who all won medals at the World Championships last month – can help nurture a strong Games legacy of future female participation in sport.

Hunt said: “It is a very important moment to have three women representing British boxing at an Olympics for the first time. All of them are world medallists and have real potential to go all the way.”

Marshall, Adams and Jonas will line up alongside seven pre-qualified male boxers – Hull’s Luke Campbell, Andrew Selby, Thomas Stalker, Fred Evans, Anthony Ogogo and Anthony Joshua.

Scottish fencer Keith Cook appealed yesterday against his exclusion from the squad for London 2012 – claiming British Fencing had failed to follow their written Olympic selection policy and procedures.

Cook, the 2010 British champion and five-time Commonwealth Games medallist, was not named in the seven-strong group for the individual events, with five of the team chosen on a discretionary basis under the Host Nation places rules. It is understood he has also missed out on the team event squad, which is set to be announced this morning.