Reid looking forward to recovery after hard weekend

Coughing up blood on Saturday evening when the vicious germs of a global tour come home to roost is the kind of occasion where a girl simply needs am other’s embrace and the comfort of a night in a childhood bed.

Fortuitously for Grace Reid, participation in the British Diving Championships in her native Edinburgh proved the happiest of coincidences. And familial TLC provided just enough support to keep the 23-year-old afloat yesterday rather than allowing her spirits to sink.

The European champion could not depart the Royal Commonwealth Pool with a domestic title but there were positive signs despite coming third in the 3m springboard final. Scarlett Mew Jensen, among her training partners in London, won with a score of 302.00 ahead of In ge Jansen of the Netherlands. “It was survival of the fittest,” declared Reid, left, who also won silver in Saturday’s 3m synchro following a reverse to Maria Pap worth Burrel and Mew Jensen. And with the UK’S team for July’s world championships in Gwangju due to be chosen last night, she will fly to Turkey this week for a training camp with enough op timism that with rude health will come ample buoyancy.

“We’ve got some time now to come down a bit,” she added. “I need to mend and recover. I’ve got a couple of days off but there’ll be a bit of break in terms of intensity. We can ease off slightly and then come back up again. But hopefully, selection is OK and then we all start getting ready for the worlds.”

The selectors were forced into an awkward choice over who will join Tom Daley in the 10m platform event in Gwangju after Noah Williams denied Mat ty Lee victory in the event. James Heatly will hope a second British title in the 3m springboard final might see him chosen. “If that gets me to Korea,” said the S cot ,“that would be fantastic, another chance to show what I can do.”