DOMONIC PRAYS FOR HELP FROM SELECTORS
GOLD Coast diver Domonic Bedggood has joined Melissa Wu in having to rely on discretionary selection for the Commonwealth Games after suffering a training injury.
Bedggood lost his footing while attempting an inward dive from the 3m springboard, tearing the skin from both shins.
While the injury left the 23-year-old nursing grazes and impressive plasters down both legs, things could have been much worse, with only an instinctive move to push his hands out at the last moment saving his face from being hit.
Bedggood believes he may have lost consciousness briefly before his synchronised partner Matthew Carter, with whom he was training, and lifeguards, reached him and helped him to the side of the pool.
“As I’ve gone to press down into the jump, my foot’s slipped off, so then I cut that (leg) straight down and the other one banged up against (the board),” he said.
“I had to get my face away, so I had to push off and bounce into the water.
“Everyone said they were pretty surprised that I was able to get my face away from it, I guess that was my first instinct to put my hands down and get as far away as I could from it.
“I don’t remember too much, I think I passed out for a second, it’s not too great.”
Bedggood though is looking to the bright side of the “freak accident”, saying it was better to happen now than next April during the Games.
“It’s nothing that worried the coach or any technical things that caused it,” he said.
“These kinds of cuts and grass happen on springboard from time to time.”
While Bedggood could have pushed himself to compete, the risk of infection something that would derail his Games preparation much more than the superficial injury - meant he will sit out this week’s trials and rely on discretionary selection.
“You don’t always want to leave it up to the discretion of the selectors,” he said.
“But things like this do happen and myself in Melissa Wu are in the same boat.”