Reid looks to step up as she makes debut in World Series DIVING
THE Olympic Games was a great experience for Scottish diver Grace Reid and she will be hoping to progress further this week as she makes her debut at the Fina/NVC Diving World Series in China.
The 20-year-old from the Edinburgh Diving Club finished eighth in the 3m springboard in Rio last year and has continued on an upward curve, arriving in Beijing tomorrow in good shape, according to her coach.
The event begins on Friday and Reid will be contesting the medals in both the individual and the synchro events, the later with new partner Katherine Torrance.
With Reid’s long-term coach Jen Leeming on maternity leave, she has been working with Nick Robinson-Baker since the start of last month.
Robinson-Baker, the 29-year-old who had a distinguished diving career that included competing at the 2008 Olympics and winning a medal for England at Glasgow 2014, has enjoyed working with Reid.
“When I heard there was a coaching opportunity coming up to work with Grace, James Heatly and some other up-and-coming Scottish divers in Edinburgh it was a chance I jumped at,” he said. “I had watched Grace diving a lot over the years from afar and felt she was someone with a lot of talent. Clearly her superb 2016 which was rounded off with a great performance at the Olympics left her in a really good place heading into 2017 and we are trying to kick things on.
“When I came in I knew Grace had worked with Jen since she was very young and they had quite a bond, so I was clear to tell her I wasn’t coming up to Scotland to rip things up and start again.
“I wanted to augment the great work Jen had been doing and I found Grace to be very approachable and hard working.
“We had a busy January and then she performed well at the National Diving Cup in Plymouth early in February and since then we have been building up to the World Series.
“These events are going to be great for Grace’s development, but she deserves to be there and she is now used to being around the world’s best.
“She is an intelligent girl who thinks a lot about her diving and I am confident she can go out and do a good job in these big events.”
Reid is part of an eightstrong team who will compete for Great Britain in the World Series. National performance director Alexei Evangulov said: “The World Series is going to be a good test for our athletes to return to international competition for the first time since the Olympics. “It also gives the divers the platform on which to return to peak fitness sooner. “It will provide us with an opportunity from a strategic point of view to identify who our main competition will be ahead of the Fina World Championships in Budapest this year.”