Diver Grace Reid reflects on Euros week of highs and lows

Grace Reid shows off her gold medal. Pic: PA

The high point of the week for the 22-year-old undoubtebly came on Saturday evening when she claimed a superb gold in the women’s 3m event.

That followed on from a silver in the mixed 3m synchro on Wednesday with Ross Haslam.

However, the low point came yesterday when a poor last dive saw her and partner Katherine Torrance slip from first place to fourth and miss out on a podium spot in the women’s 3m synchro event.

Needing a solid, but unspectacular, dive to make sure of a medal, 19-year-old Torrance from Leeds seemed to feel the pressure, being completely out of synch with the more experienced Reid.

The judges gave the dive 39.60 points and there was disbelief in the building when the score, from the final dive of the whole event, came up on the big screen and showed they had slipped out of the medals entirely.

Earlier, it had been going so well, after the first two round of dives the British duo were on 97.80 points to trail leaders Russia (98.40) by less than a point.

They then put in a superb third dive to take the lead ahead of the Italian pair and Russia.

A solid fourth round dive came before the aforementioned last dive.

Italy won gold (289.26), Germany the silver (286.80) and Russia collected the bronze (282.90).

Reflecting on the synchro finish, Reid said: “It was just not meant to be.

“It is hard, but that is the world of diving, these fine margins are what we have to work with.

“I am upset more from Katherine than anything, I just want her to be okay. She is a strong girl and I have no doubt that she will come back from this stronger.

“You could analyse that last dive until the cows come home, but it is what it is. We will figure out what went wrong and go from there.

“I have still had a good week. It would have been nice to finish off with a second gold, but there is always room for improvements. I will go away and come back stronger

“Coming into the meet I was maybe a bit nervous about the home crowd, but I learned as the week went on to use that to my advantage.

“The main thing for me going forward is to be assertive [in big events]. Home pride, a little bit of passion, that is nothing to shy away from.

“And wow isn’t British diving in a great place now? It has come on leaps and bounds in the last couple of years. We are winning medals right, left and centre and Britain is becoming a real diving nation that others respect.”

It really is amazing how sport can give you some of the best moments and then some of the worst.

Less than 24-hours before yesterday’s fourth place, Reid was the star of the show in the women’s 3m event.

The Scot leapfrogged British team mate Alicia Blagg with her final dive to take top spot, an improvement on the bronze she won in the same event in London in 2016.

With her last dive, Reid needed a score of 71.90 points or more to have a chance of winning the title.

Former Edinburgh Diving Club member Reid pulled out all the stops, posting 73.50 for the forward 2 1/2 somersaults with twist to give her a final score of 329.40.

She said: “I was feeling the pressure, but I started off well, maybe not as well as I would’ve liked but I knew thoe last two dives would be solid for me.

“So I said to myself ‘give it everything, no medals are won when you play it safe.”