JUMPING JACK’S SPLASH!
Springboard star gets England bid rolling again
HOW fitting it should be a diver that did most to salvage England’s campaign from the depths.
Olympic champion Jack Laugher went into the first of his three events with his country in search of a hero to rescue them from a sea of despondency.
The biggest and most expensively assembled English team sent to an overseas Games was sinking almost without trace in its battle with Australia to top the medal table.
Fingers were being pointed, particularly in light of the extra £4million injected by Sport England to ensure the Aussies were made to accept second-best.
Yorkshireman Laugher, 23, knew there was more at stake than simply retaining his Commonwealth onemetre springboard title at the Optus Aquatic Centre. He was up to the task. Six times he dived, six times he surfaced in the lead. His winning margin was a massive 25.55 points.
“This is my job, something I love and do every day,” he said after picking up his third career Commonwealth gold. “I don’t feel like I should be responsible for winning every time but I should be responsible for trying to make my nation proud by putting in 100 per cent attitude and everything to try to get medals.”
England are still in a hopeless position behind Australia in the medal table. Having come out on top in Glasgow four years ago with 58 golds, nine more than Australia, they trail 57-25 here.
The red faces remain among Team England bosses over the blunder of flying a cyclist 10,000 miles only to forget to submit her entry to race.
There is embarrassment too that three days into the athletics competition England have not won a medal. In the diving pool at least they delivered, with Alicia Blagg and Katherine Torrance setting the tone for Laugher with a silver medal in the women’s synchronised 3m springboard. They had not competed together before January and had just two weeks training before the Games.
“We were like, ‘We’ll just wing it, and see what happens’,” said Torrance. “It went pretty well.”
Nobody left the pool feeling prouder than James Heatly, who became Scotland’s first Commonwealth diving medallist since his late grandfather Sir Peter Heatly won gold in 1958.
“I’m a bit overwhelmed,” said the 20-year-old. “My grandfather was my inspiration.”