Rebecca Gallantree and Thomas Daley (right) of Britain pose with their gold medals after winning the mixed team event at the Aquatics World Championships in Kazan. (Reuters)
Agencies/Kazan, Russia
Tom Daley created a bit of history at the world swimming championships yesterday as he along with fellow Briton Rebecca Gallantree became the inaugural world champions in the diving mixed team event in Kazan.
Daley—who in 2009 aged just 15 won the individual world title in the 10m platform event—and Gallantree totalled 434.65 points. Ukrainian pairing Oleksandr Gorshkovozov and Iuliia Prokopchuk took silver (426.45) with bronze going to Chinese duo Xie Siyi and Chen Ruolin (425.40).
Daley earned 10s for his two dives off the tower, propelling Britain to victory.
The U.S. team of Jessica Parratto and David Boudia led by 38.2 points after Boudia’s platform dive earned 9.0s in the first round, but they finished seventh. Boudia won Olympic gold on platform three years ago. The Mixed Team event is being featured for the first time at a World Championships and the format – which sees one male and one female diver perform individually from both the 3m springboard and 10m platform – brought out the best in the Brits’ versatility. And Daley admitted they had come into the event with low expectations, having finished sixth with Gallantree in their only other Mixed Team performance at the 2012 European Championships. “We really don’t know what happened there,” admitted Daley. “We went in to the competition as a bit of a warm-up for our individual events.
“But to come away with a result like that is amazing. I had my highest score ever on the armstand, Becky did one of her best front dives in competition she’s ever done. I was a little bit nervous doing the dive from 3m because I’m not used to springboard diving. I actually thought I was going to hit my head on the board but I got nines for that dive. I’ve never had 10s before for my armstand and then that happened which is a positive and then the back went down pretty nicely as well.”
Russian Ishchenko sets new record with 21st medal
Russia’s Natalia Ishchenko became the most decorated synchronised swimmer of all time yesterday as she won her 21st major medal by taking gold in the individual freestyle at the world championships in Kazan.
Returning to action after having a baby, Ischenko racked up a score of 97.2333 to relegate China’s Huang Xuechen into silver position on 95.7000, while Spaniard Ona Carbonell claimed bronze on 94.9000pts.
The 29-year-old from Smolensk is a three-time Olympic champion and won the first of her 18 world titles in 2005. She is also a nine-time European champion.
