Tom Daley and Grace Reid won Great Britain’s first gold of the London 2016 European Aquatics Championships with victory in a dramatic Mixed 3m Synchro diving final.
In Daley’s first appearance of the Championships, the Brits were locked in a three-way battle for gold throughout, eventually finishing ahead of pairs from Italy and Russia to claim the inaugural European title for the event.
Daley and Reid had only began training together a week before competition, but looked a seasoned partnership on the night, sitting in the podium positions throughout.
They moved into a narrow lead in the penultimate round of dives, scoring 76.26 to establish a 2.46 point advantage over Italy’s world bronze medallists Tania Cagnotto and Maicol Verzotto, with Russia’s Nadezdha Bazhina and Nikita Shleikher another 2.1 points back.
A score of 75.60 on their final effort took them up to 321.06 – a score that would have won silver at last year’s World Championships and proved enough to land Reid her maiden major championship title and Daley his third European gold.
“I don’t really know what just happened,” admitted Daley, who is also competing in the 10m Synchro and individual 10m Platform in London.
“Grace and I were put together 10 days ago and we’ve done about five sessions together so I’m over the moon to come away as European champions on a board that I never train.
“It was great to have the home crowd, our families in the audience. It’s been really fun although I was terrified before starting the competition.
“It could be a possible event at 2020 in the Olympic Games and Great Britain are really strong at the mixed synchro events.”
“Today was a really good day for me and I don’t think I’m going to sleep tonight,” added Reid, who had finished seventh in the individual 1m Springboard earlier in the session.
“There’s a lot to take away from today and hopefully I can continue to build on it this season.”
Cagnotto leads home Italian one-two in 1m
While Cagnotto settled for silver in the Mixed 3m Synchro, she had already gone one better in the individual 1m Springboard, an event in which she won her first World Championship gold last season.
The 30-year old didn’t have an easy ride in the final, only managing to claim her 18th European gold medal – and her seventh in the individual 1m – with her final dive.
Elena Bertocchi, who finished fourth in this event 12 months ago, pushed her Italian teammate closest, setting a score of 281.30 with her last effort.
But Cagnotto, who has now won the European 1m title for the past four years, summoned all her experience to score 56.40 in the last round and confirm an Italian one-two on 284.15.
“I didn’t really train for this event as this is the Olympic year and I am concentrating on the 3m events, the individual and the synchro,” said Cagnotto.
“Still, I arrived here as the world champion and even if my start wasn’t the best, finally I arrived at the competition and performed a couple of good dives.”
Bazhina, who also won gold in the Team Event on the opening night in London, claimed bronze on 280.75 to take her individual medal tally for the Championships to three.
Reid scored 262.25 for her seventh place while 17-year old British teammate Katherine Torrance placed 12th on her European debut, scoring 216.20.
- Click here for full results from the 1m Springboard Final and Mixed 3m Synchro Final.
Tickets for the European Aquatics Championships – the biggest event to be held at the London Aquatics Centre since the 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games – are still available either online HERE or on the door for the first five days.
Swimming news courtesy of LEN 2016.
