“I’d like to see like 18 shows at the festival but I’ve got a job to do first and this silver was a great start”
GRACE REID talked about seeing the best of the Fest but she was the main show in town after winning a medal in the diving at the European Championshp.
Scottish diver Grace Reid plans to see a number of Festival Fringe shows in Edinburgh next week after the European Championships – but yesterday the local girl was the main show in town as she picked up a silver medal at the Royal Commonwealth Pool.
The 22-year-old, who now trains in London, but learnt her trade at the Edinburgh Diving Club, finished second to Germany along with Sheffield’s Ross Haslam in the three-metre mixed synchro event.
The Great Britain pairing has not been together long, but won a bronze medal on the World Cup circuit in China earlier this year.
And in this straight-to-final event they started off well and were joint leaders after the first round of dives, outright leader after round two and second after round three.
In the fourth round the German duo Lou Massenberg and Tina Punzel put down a score of 74.40 points and when Great Britain could only respond with 66.60 it put Massenberg and Punzel in the box seat.
The Germans went on to win gold (313.50 from five dives)
with Reid and Haslam second on 308.67 and Ukraine third on 291.81.
This was Reid’s first medal of a possible three this week with the hometown favourite set to appear again on Saturday and Sunday.
“I would like to go and see like 18 shows [in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe] and I’ve got plenty of time for that when I’m done – I’ve got a job to do first this week though and this silver was a great start,” she stated. “It has been really good to be home and that has really helped me prepare for my events this week.
“It’s just those familiar faces, the Scottish accent, it’s so comforting to have those little things around – even things
like the food we are eating is familiar and it all helps.
“Obviously the spectators have just been fantastic too and they were cheering for us like mad, it was really special.
“We know we did not have a perfect competition to get the silver, but we had a really good one and got a personal best.
“Obviously there are things we want to improve – that third dive, maybe the fourth as well – and all of that will come as we train and compete more together.
“This medal will definitely give me a boost going into the
weekend, but each event is separate so I’ve still got a way to go and will be training hard in the next couple of days.”
Haslam, 20, praised Reid for helping him settle into the pairing and said: “It is a bit of pressure taking over from Tom Daley because Tom Daley is, well, Tom Daley. Everyone knows who is and talks about him and what he has done.
“However, working with Grace has just been really good, being here in Scotland with her in her home city has made for a really nice vibe and I think we feed well off of each other.”
“It has been really good to be home. It’s just those familiar faces, the Scottish accent, it’s so comforting” GRACE REID