Del Celo and Ward seal AYOF bronze
19th January 2013
Francesca Del Celo and Georgia Ward claimed Great Britain’s third diving medal of the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney.
The British pair scored 258.84 to clinch bronze in the 3m Synchro, leapfrogging Malaysia’s Ling Kar Kam and Lai Jasmine (256.02) with their fifth and final dive.
Me and Georgia were put together at the last minute and had never trained before.
It was the Ward’s second medal of the competition, the Crystal Palace diver having won Platform bronze on the opening day in Australia.
Del Celo was close to landing a second medal on the day as she finished fourth in the individual 3m Springboard event.
The Plymouth diver scored 466.30 for her 10 dives, finishing just 5.6 points behind Australia’s bronze medallist Nancy Wang.
“I was pleased with my requireds in the individual but my optionals weren’t as strong as I’d hoped,” said Del Celo, who won 3m Synchro gold with Grace Reid at last year’s European Junior Championships in Graz.
“But I brought it up a bit at the end to come fourth.
“Me and Georgia were put together at the last minute and had never trained before. Georgia is a platform diver and I’d not competed these dives for a while.
“But we felt confident we could be successful so it was good to get a medal.”
Also competing for GB in the 3m Springboard was City of Sheffield’s Georgia Davenport who scored 451.75 to finish sixth.
Meanwhile, Ross Haslam (City of Sheffield) and Sam Thornton (Bradford Espirit) finished fourth and sixth in the Platform event, scoring 491.20 and 476.75 respectively.
