Thirteen-year-old British diver Tom Daley and partner Blake Aldridge stepped forward to deliver Britain’s first medal of the FINA Diving World Cup in Beijing and with it a place for the nation at this summer’s Olympic Games.
 
Daley (Plymouth Diving) and 25-year-old Aldridge (Southampton) delivered a mature performance given their years and the fact their partnership is still very much in its infancy, to take the bronze in a hard fought contest for medals.
 
With so much riding on the event, with a top eight finish and Olympic qualification the target, the pair faltered in this morning’s preliminaries but showed absolutely no nerves at the Water Cube tonight as they captured the hearts and minds of an enthralled Chinese audience.
 
Out in front from the very first dive, China took the gold on a total of 482.46, Germany collected the silver with a score of 466.74 and Britain, ahead of some very big names within the diving world, took the bronze in 446.07.
 
“It all come together tonight, we dived really well and I just can’t believe we won a medal as well as qualifying Britain for the Olympics,” said Daley.
 
“It’s been an absolute rollercoaster of a ride today. We didn’t dive at all well this morning and at one stage looked like we might not make it. We eventually finished ninth, made the final and then come away with a bronze. It’s totally amazing.
 
“There are still no guarantees we’ll be at the Olympics though. Blake and I will have to face Leon (Taylor) and Pete (Waterfield) in June for the selection decider and that will be really interesting.”
 
The enormity of their achievement wasn’t lost on Aldridge who, unlike his young partner, had been to international meets of a similar calibre before and who appreciates how difficult it is to perform with precision and consistency.
 
“To finish third in the world against such quality teams and with so much at stake is just an unbelievable achievement,” said Aldridge.
 
“All of the hard work that we’ve done has definitely been worth it. We work tirelessly on getting it right time and time again so when we come to events like this we have the confidence as well as the ability to see it through.
 
“This medal is so special to me but I’d love the chance to come back here for the Olympics and fight for one of those.”
 
China were always out in front, despite a late surge by the Germans, but there was very little between the top eight teams with any mistakes seeing positions and medals changing hands.
 
With the quality of competition being so high mistakes were a rarity as the pressure mounted on those searching for Olympic selection.
 
Aldridge and Daley began strongly to draw scores of 9.5 off their first required dive, a forward, one-and-a-half somersault in the pike position, to place fourth.
 
They followed suit with their next inward one-and-a-half somersault to lie fourth going into their four optional dives, with a greater difficulty rating, which would ultimately decide Britain’s Olympic fate.
 
The pair’s forward, three-and-a-half drew appreciative gasps from the Chinese crowd, who regard diving as a national treasure, and had the same effect on the judges to see them fifth on a 186.60 total after round three.
 
In the morning preliminaries Daley missed his back, three-and-a-half but made no mistake in the final as he and Aldridge exorcised the demon with precision to score 88.11 to lift them to fourth on the leader board once again.
 
They gave themselves a slight cushion and a quick glance at a possible medal on round five with a solid reverse, three-and-a-half, a new dive for the pair with increased difficulty, but they saved their very best til last with a back, two-and-a-half, with two-and-a-half twists delivering an 88.74 for a score of 446.07.
 
In the Women’s 3m event Jodie McGroarty narrowly missed out on a top 18 place and the guarantee of an Olympic place for Britain with a 21st place finish.
 
The Sheffield diver scored 275.60 when a score of 280 would have seen her progress to tomorrow’s semi-final. Team mate Louise van Hoof (Southampton Diving) struggled in the competition to finish 45th on 205.45.
 
-ends-
 
The FINA Diving World Cup takes place in Beijing from 19th to 25th February 2008.
 
The British squad comprises:
Sarah Barrow – Plymouth Diving
Monique McCarroll – Southampton Diving
Tandi Gerrard – City of Leeds
Hayley Sage – City of Sheffield
Brooke Graddon – Plymouth Diving
Jodie McGroarty – City of Sheffield
Stacie Powell – Southampton Diving
Louise Van Hoof – Southampton Diving
Thomas Daley – Plymouth Diving
Blake Aldridge – Southampton Diving
Nick Robinson-Baker – City of Sheffield
Ben Swain – City of Sheffield
Peter Waterfield – Southampton Diving
 
For further details contact Dave Richards, British Swimming Media Manager, on +44 778 992 6136 or email dave.richards@swimming.org
 
British Swimming is the National Governing Body for Swimming, Diving, Synchronised Swimming, Water Polo and Open Water in Great Britain.  It is responsible internationally for the high performance representation of the sport. The members of British Swimming are the three Home Countries national governing bodies of England (Amateur Swimming Association), Scotland (Scottish Amateur Swimming Association) and Wales. (Welsh Amateur Swimming Association)  British Swimming seeks to enable its athletes to achieve gold medal success at the Olympics, Paralympics, World Championships and Commonwealth Games.
 
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