Flower of Scotland played for the second time at the Optus Aquatics Centre as Grace Reid dived to victory in the final of the 1m Springboard.
In a final that was wide open, Reid, who is competing for Team Scotland at her third consecutive Games, dived well across each of the five rounds and grew in confidence. Her best score came in the Forward 1½ Somersaults 2 Twists Free for which she received 59.80 points. Having landed her final dive, the Forward 2½ Somersaults Pike, Reid played the waiting game watching five more competitors finish their programme.
The results were soon confirmed with Reid coming out on top with a new personal best score of 275.30. Australian’s Georgia Sheehan and Esther Qin won silver and bronze respectively. The result marks the first ever medal for a female Scottish diver at a Commonwealth Games, and the first Scottish gold for 60 years.
Afterwards Grace said: “I’m speechless at the moment. I said to myself this morning that I was just going to come into this event and enjoy it and give it everything I had. To walk away with the gold medal is just crazy and I would not have believed that had someone suggested it this morning.
“I had an inkling that I was diving well this evening and that’s a nice feeling to have; it gave me confidence round after round. But I suppose anything is possible with diving, it’s all about what happens on the day and I knew that the gold medal would go to someone who didn’t make mistakes and I’m so happy that someone was me.”
Earlier in the day James Heatly and Lucas Thomson paired up for the 10m Synchro Platform, which was a straight final. They were solid across all six dives and finished 5th with a points tally of 369.60.
Reid is back in action tomorrow in the 3m springboard event. Diving prelims start at 10:01hrs (01:01hrs UK time); Finals start at 19:01hrs (10:01hrs UK time).