THE athletes might have the monopoly on Super Saturday but England’s divers made it Fantastic Friday as Jack Laugher capped off ‘the best day in English diving history’ to complete a hat-trick of titles.
Laugher has become such a consistent sport in the force that he almost stole the limelight from Tom Daley as he took his third gold of the week alongside Chris Mears in the 3m synchro – the event where they won Olympic gold in Rio two years ago.
The English medal rush had started with Daley, who combined with Dan Goodfellow to take victory in the 10m synchro, with Noah Williams and Matty Dixon taking silver in that event.
From a wider British perspective, Grace Reid earned gold for Scotland in the 1m springboard and for Laugher, who overtook Daley with his fifth Commonwealth gold, there have been few better days on the boards.
He said: “It's been a fantastic day. For all of us to get medals today. British diving's looking extremely strong at the moment. We've had some fantastic results. Today's been one of the best in English diving history.
“I've dived brilliantly over these past three days, but it hasn't been easy at all. I've had to dive really well to get these titles and I'm really proud of getting them and how I've performed.
“People expect you to be the best and that's always hard. I always struggle with that. When you're Olympic champion, Olympic silver medallist, world medallist, people expect you to win. That's difficult. To have all those pressures and to deliver, it feels brilliant.”
While Laugher has been the standout diver at these Games, on Friday he needed partner Chris Mears to perform alongside him.
And after a 2017 where he started to question his love of the sport, Mears was thrilled to be back on top of the diving world – taking gold in his only event in Gold Coast.
He said: “I dug myself out of the hole I was in. And now I feel like myself again. I love competing under pressure. I've been a diver since I was seven years old. It's part of my identity. It just feels right.”
Meanwhile Goodfellow admitted relief as he and Daley held off English team-mates Dixon and Williams.
The Olympic bronze medallists were far from fluent in the competition. Daley was struggling with the hip injury that ruled him out of today’s individual event, while Goodfellow fluffed his final dive.
“Annoyingly that is usually my best dive,” he said.
“Tom's been struggling with it all week, but it turns out I was the one that dropped it. All the other dives were really good, five out of six, the back 3½ pike we did scored 90 points and we haven't done that in a long time, probably since near the Olympics.”
Finally Kat Torrance and Alicia Blagg missed out on the medals in the 1m springboard, finishing fifth and seventh respectively as Scotland’s Grace Reid took the title.
npower is the Official Partner of Team England and is giving our athletes the power of support by recording a brand new version of their anthem, Jerusalem. To listen to the track visit npower.com/teamengland
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