Diving duo Reid and Heatly in dreamland as they bring overall gold tally to lucky 13

DIVERS Grace Reid and James Heatly raised Scotland’s final gold count to a lucky 13 at the Commonwealth Games yesterday. And their success saw 25-year-old Heatly follow in the footsteps of his grandfather as a champion of the diving pool. He linked up with childhood chum Reid to win the 3metres mixed synchro and set a new Scotland best of 13 aquatics medals at a single Games. The Edinburgh duo (pictured) shook off disappointing results in their individual outings in Birmingham to upgrade their bronze from June’s World Championships with a golden display at Sandwell. It was capped by a superb score of 74.40 on their closing somersault that propelled them from third to first, leapfrogging Australia’s Shixin Li and Maddison Kennedy who saw victory slip from their grasp with a poor final dive. What a moment it was for the duo, with Heatly also savouring the fact he has emulated the late Hall of Famer Sir Peter Heatly, who took three golds at the British Empire Games of 1950, 1954 and 1958. ‘These Games have just been incredible,’ he said. ‘Our diving team has been bigger than ever. And it was great for me to have Grace there, too. There’s no one I’d rather have done it with.’ For Reid, in her fourth and probably final Games, this was sweet redemption after almost calling time on her career following disappointment at the Tokyo Olympics. The 26-year-old was unable to defend the 1m springboard title she collected in Gold Coast in 2018 but rallied valiantly following a slip midway through. ‘I did hit the board on my third dive,’ she admitted. ‘It’s about how you come back. And sometimes the comeback is better than the setback. I did feel a lot of pressure just because I wanted to do well. And being part of Team Scotland is so special. I wanted to add to that.’ Fellow Scots Danny Mabbott and Clara Kerr came eighth. Later, England’s Noah Williams and Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix secured the last gold on offer at Sandwell in the mixed synchro 10m platform ahead of team-mates Kyle Kothari and Lois Toulson, with young Scottish pair Angus Menmuir and Gemma McArthur seventh. There will be no homecoming parade for Reid or Heatly, who now jet to Rome for the start of the European Championships later this week with a chance of a medal hat-trick this summer. ‘Our season still isn’t done,’ added Reid. ‘But I think, first things first, we need a couple of days of rest to recover. It’s been a really busy programme, which is great. But we had worlds just before this. ‘So we’ll reset and regroup and hopefully have another go before the end of the season.’