Tom Daley fired out a warning to his rivals ahead of the Olympic Games in Rio with an impressive display of diving to earn the third European 10m platform title of his career.
The 21-year-old gave the expectant London Aquatics Centre crowd exactly what they wanted on the final day of diving at the 2016 European Aquatics Championships with a mammoth score of 570.40 for the win.
It was one of two British podium finishes on the Sunday with Rebecca Gallantree and Alicia Blagg also picking up 3m synchro silver to take the overall tally to 11 medals – the best performance by any British diving team at a European Championships and enough to see them pick up the European Diving Champions Trophy.
For Daley, it was also a third medal of the week having won 3m synchronised gold and men’s 10m synchro silver in his home pool, with his performances seeing him crowned Best European Male European Diver.
He found himself second after six rounds in Sunday afternoon’s final but then powered past Russia's Viktor Minibaev, who won silver, to take gold with a winning margin of 45.90. “It was lovely to come in and get the gold medal,” said Daley. “But it wasn’t really about that for me. It was about being in the right place at the right time and now I’m in the perfect position going into the Olympic Games.
“Viktor Minibaev has been a tough competitor of mine all year at the World Series and we always have that rivalry but I’m glad I came out on top today.
“I’ve been training well and I just wanted to be able to come in and dive at my best. I’m looking forward to Rio now. It’s an outdoor pool and anything could happen.”
Bronze went to fellow Russian Nikita Shleikher while Matty Lee recorded a career-best finish of fifth on 465.10 to round off an impressive week which also included bronze medals in the team event and mixed 10m synchro.
The second and final event of the session then saw Gallantree and Blagg take to the boards in the 3m synchro.
It was Italian’s Tania Cagnotto and Francesca Dallape who were the pace setters, leading through all five rounds of the final to finish with 327.81 to take their eighth consecutive European 3m synchro title.
But the Brits were not far off the pace, finishing just 8.49 points behind in second with Russia’s Nadezhda Bazhina and Kristina Ilinykh scoring 304.20 for bronze. “It was obviously a little bit disappointing to finish fourth in the 3m last night,” said Gallantree. “But to come back out here tonight with Alicia and put in that performance to get a silver medal is more than I could have hoped for today.
“Our first two dives weren’t quite as good as we know we can do them. So from that point onwards, we really had to fight to get back there into the medal spots and I think we showed just good our optionals can be.
“If we can just put a little bit more work on those first two dives, then watch out Rio.”
Sportsbeat 2016