Reid and Heatly ensure Scotland finish
Synch or swim in Birmingham as dynamic duo Reid and Heatly seized gold to make history
GRACE REID and James Heatly ensured it was a golden finish for Team Scotland at Birmingham 2022 as they claimed victory in the mixed synchro 3m springboard on the last day of these Games.
The Scottish duo were redhot favourites going into the final having won bronze at the recent World Championships but neither Reid nor Heatly have had the Games they had wanted prior to this final.
Both had had their fill of disappointment in the past few days.
Two fourth-place finishes each at these Games meant both Reid and Heatly had to show plenty of resilience to shake off those results ahead of this synchro final.
They managed to leave any baggage firmly in the Athletes’ Village however and from their very first dive, showed their intent.
The rest of the field did not go down without a fight, though, with the Australian pair of Madison Keeney and Shixin Li in particular producing some spectacular dives.
Indeed, the Australians were in the lead going into the fifth and final round, with Reid and Heatly in third.
However, the Scots saved their best to last, and their final dive was close to flawless, moving them into first place.
It was a nervy few minutes as they were forced to wait for the remaining nine pairs of divers to complete their final dives but none were able to match the class of Reid and Heatly, with the Scots emerging victors on 306.00 points, 1.98 ahead of the Australians in second with Malaysia claiming bronze.
The gold medal was, admitted Reid, an overwhelming achievement, particularly considering the pressure upon their shoulders and the setbacks they’d both overcome in the past week dealing with their fourth-place finishes.
“It doesn’t feel like it’s sunk in but we’re just delighted,” said Reid, who at only 26 years old was competing in her fourth Commonwealth Games.
“We had some disappointments earlier on in the programme so to come back and end like this, I’m so happy.
“Having James there as an anchor point when I was feeling jittery was great because I knew there was expectation and I couldn’t have done it without him.”
“I did feel a lot of pressure just because I wanted to do well and being part of Team Scotland is so special and I wanted to add to that, both of us did.”
This medal was Reid’s second Commonwealth
Games gold following her win in 2018 but for Heatly, this was his first victory at the Commonwealth Games.
The pair have made history by being the first ever Commonwealth mixed synchro champions with the event having only been introduced to the programme this year and Heatly admits that gave their win a somewhat surreal feel.
“It’s unreal. It’s hard to know even what to say. It’s in writing now though, so it can never be taken away,” he said of their feat of being the inaugural Commonwealth champions in the event.
“We did feel pressure. You’ve got to just try to block that out though. Grace and I knew what we were capable of so it was just a case of going out there and doing it.”
These Games may not have been held on Scottish soil but, at times, the support for the Scottish pair inside the diving arena made it feel like a home crowd.
And Reid revealed that was a major factor in their victory.
“We were massively aware of the support,” she said.
“It’s hard in front of an English crowd sometimes because we were following the English divers but I think that the Scots rivalled them in terms of support. Just seeing the flags in the crowd and knowing how many people were here to support us, it means a lot.”
Also in the mixed synchro 3m springboard final field were Danny Mabbott and Clara
Kerr who finished in twelfth place but the teenagers have gained valuable experience at
Birmingham 2022 in what was their Commonwealth Games debuts.
In the final of the mixed synchro 10m platform, Angus Menmuir and Gemma McArthur put in a solid performance to finish in seventh position behind gold medallists Noah Williams and Andrea Spendolini Sirieix from England.
The Closing Ceremony, which took place only a few hours after Reid and Heatly won gold, saw Eilish McColgan handed the honour of carrying the Scotland flag into the stadium and Team Scotland finished Birmingham 2022 in sixth place in the medal table with 51 medals, 13 of which were gold making it its second most successful Games ever, behind only Glasgow 2014 where 53 medals were won.
‘Bittersweet’ Athletics
IT is certainly not how they would have wanted to do it, but for the first time in 40 years, Scotland came away with a medal from the women’s 4x400m relay.
That it came at the expense of England, initially awarded the gold before disqualification for stepping out of their lane, made it somewhat bittersweet.
The intense rivalry that exists in some team sports is not quite as prominent in athletics, where the runners wear the same GB vest for much of the year.
So while there was elation at taking the bronze medal, behind Canada and Jamaica, the quartet of Beth Dobbin, Zoey Clark, Jill Cherry and Nicole
Yeargin, admitted that the manner was far from ideal.
Dobbin said: “It was really bittersweet because we’re on the team with the England girls when we represent Great Britain. It’s quite difficult because we want to see them do well, but for us, it was really special because it’s a medal for Team Scotland.
“But it’s definitely bittersweet because the English girls ran really well so it’s hard to see them not get a medal. But then we’re obviously pleased for ourselves because we ran really well.”
The time of 3:30.15 was within a second of the Scottish record set four years ago. On that occasion, it was only good enough for sixth, but this time around they made it onto the podium.
In the end, it came down to Yeargin to bring Scotland home, the recent World Championship bronze-medallist being hunted down by South Africa’s Zeney van der Walt and Kenya’s 800m champion Mary Moraa.
She held on though, in large part thanks to the advice she had given to her team-mates.
She said: “The crowd has been amazing. The sound and running with all the noise kind of hypes you up and it keeps you going even though you’re in pain. I think we did well as a Commonwealth Games.
“Scotland did really, well I think we touched pretty much every event so I’m really happy for Team Scotland and these ladies.
“I really felt good about where we were looking for the relay and to come away with a medal, I felt like that was the cherry on top.”