All smiles as Laugher retains Commonwealth diving title
GOLD COAST: England’s Jack Laugher gave a dominant performance to defend his Commonwealth Games one-metre springboard title on the Gold Coast yesterday. Earlier, Esther Qin and Georgia Sheehan snatched the women’s three-metre synchro gold after a fellow Aussie pair crashed from first place to last with a botched final dive.
The 23-year-old Rio Olympic silver medallist on the three-metre board, led from wire-to-wire throughout the six rounds to tally 438.00 points and win gold with some ease. Australia’s James Connor took silver with 412.45 points. Scotland’s James Heatly finished with bronze on 399.25 points to become his country’s first Commonwealth diving medallist since his late grandfather Peter Heatly won gold at the 1958 Cardiff Games.
“It was difficult to come here as the defending champion,” said Laugher. “I really knuckled down, got focused-everything went fantastically and I am very proud of what I did.” Laugher’s top-scoring dives were 76.50 for an inward 2-1/2 somersaults and his leadoff back 2-1/2 somersaults dive which netted 75.00 from the judges. “It was a really good score, I was 440, almost a PB but I didn’t quite hit anything, everything was really good, the tops were fantastic and I felt really good going out there,” Laugher said.
“But my entries were a little bit shaky. I put that down to a little bit of nerves, trying to defend the title, also being outdoors, all those different pressures, but I’m really happy with my overall performance.” Laugher will bid for a second gold medal in the 3m springboard on Thursday. “Three metres is my main board and I’m a little bit nervous for it, my first international competition of the year because of the injuries I’ve had,” he said.
“But I’ve got high hopes, training’s been good, I’m really enjoying the pool, the place and the team village.” It is Laugher’s third Commonwealth Games title since his debut at the age of 15 when he competed in Delhi in 2010.
Laugher went on to win two gold medals and a silver at Glasgow 2014 before joining forces with Chris Mears to win Britain’s first-ever Olympic diving gold medal in Rio where they won the three-metre synchro competition. Qin and Sheehan, meanwhile jumped from fourth to clinch gold after leaders Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith bombed out with a disastrous attempt at a forward 2-1/2 somersaults with two twists that dropped them to last. A tearful Keeney, who lost control of her dive in windy conditions at the outdoor pool, put a brave face on the mishap.
“It was all over the shop,” said the onemetre world champion. “Obviously I don’t think anyone can say they dived well, but we’ve come out the other end. It was a tough day.”