Team Scotland diver Grace Reid teamed up with Tom Daley to win Britain’s first ever Mixed 3m Synchro gold medal, with victory on the third day of the European Aquatics Championships in London.
The achievement was all the more remarkable as her partnership with Olympic bronze medallist Daley can be measured in a matter of days. She had also just competed in the Women’s 1m final, where she finished a creditable 7th.
The pair built steadily through the competition, lying in third place through the first three rounds. Unleashing their best dives in the final two rounds, they moved into the lead with their highest mark, 76.36, on their front 3 ½ somersaults piked in round four. Another top quality dive in the final round saw them finish on a total of 321.06, to win Britain’s first ever European gold in this event and the team’s first gold of these championships.
Italy’s Tania Cagnotto and Maicol Verzotto took silver and Russia’s Nadezhda Bazhina and Nikita Shleiker the bronze.
Daley said: “I don’t really know what just happened, Grace and I got put together about ten days ago and have done maybe five training sessions together.
“To be Europeans Champions on a board that I don’t even train on, it’s amazing. I’m just over the moon with it.”
Grace was just as surprised at the result:
“I honestly can’t believe what just happened. Today was a really good day for me, there’s a huge amount for me to take away with me and my main event the 3m is coming up on Saturday, so there’s plenty more to think about.”
Scotland’s youngest competitor at the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games, finishing 6th in the 3m Springboard final, at the age of just 14, Grace has really come into her own since just missing out on a medal in the 1m event at the Glasgow 2014 Games. She now has real ambitions to compete at this year’s Olympics, having recently reached her first world-level semi-final at the Rio World Cup to qualify a 3m Springboard place for Team GB.
More immediately, she turns her attention to that event on Saturday, first looking for a place in the final and then, possibly, another European medal.