Sheffield diver wins to book ticket for Shanghai

City of Sheffield’s Nick Robinson-Baker and Chris Mears booked their place at next month’s World Championships with victory in the three-metre synchro on the opening day of the British Gas National Diving Championships in Leeds.
By The Newsroom
Published 11th Jun 2011, 07:00 BST

The duo comfortably defended the title they won in Sheffield last year with a score of 398.22.

That was just short of the mark they achieved in finishing fourth at last year’s Commonwealth Games – their first major international competition – and Robinson-Baker believes their partnership is showing steady signs of improvement.

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“We’re still quite a new pair and to score near 400 is great,” Robinson-Baker said.

“We had a consistent performance and it felt good. We are looking to sharpen up before the World Championships in Shanghai and I know we’re both really looking forward to that competition.”

Silver went to Jack Laugher (City of Leeds) and Oliver Dingley (Harrogate) and Callum Johnstone and Matthew Roberts (City of Leeds) took bronze.

Southampton diver Mears also claimed a silver medal after he finished behind European junior champion Oliver Dingley in the men’s one-metre springboard. Leeds diver Johnstone took bronze

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Eighteen-year-old Dingley was pleased after posting a score of 384.25, saying: “I feel great after that performance. I made a couple of mistakes in training (yesterday morning) and I just needed to get my head around them before the final.

“I was a bit nervous but I always had confidence in myself to know that I could do it.”

City of Leeds’s rising star Alicia Blagg, who was England’s youngest competitor at last year’s Commonwealth Games, was unable to defend her 1m springboard crown as she lost out to Rhea Gayle.

Blagg became Britain’s second youngest national diving champion, behind Tom Daley, at the age of 13 last year but she had to be content with silver after finishing 6.9 points behind Gayle yesterday. Her City of Leeds team-mate Chloe Hurd took bronze.

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The women’s 10m Synchro proved to one of the closest finals on day one at the championships with two pairs within touching distance of each other.

Sarah Barrow (City of Leeds) and Tonia Couch (Plymouth) pipped the City of Leeds pair of Rebecca Gallantree and Jenny Cowen to win gold.

Despite pulling out of the team event, Tom Daley is due to make his first competitive appearance since the death of his father in the 3m springboard.

Related topics:Tom DaleySilver