Laugher secures World Junior title in Arizona
4 Sep 2010
Young British diver Jack Laugher is celebrating after being crowned World Junior 1m Springboard Diving Champion at the age of just 15.
The Harrogate diver is part of the British Diving Team, powered by British Gas, at the 18th FINA World Junior Diving Championships in Tucson, USA and becomes Britain’s first world junior champion since 1999.
Laugher showed sensational form in the Group B Boys 1m Final (14-15 years old) to take the victory with an impressive score of 440 points from Bryce Kline of the USA with 416.85 and Sheng Li of China on 386.60.
In the opening rounds Igor Myalin of Russia set the early pace but faltered in rounds eight and nine. However, Laugher’s strength and height out-psyched his main opposition and he kept his composure to take the gold.
Laugher, who qualified number one into the final, scored 8.5’s on his inward one-and-a-half somersault, 7.5s on his forward one-and-a-half somersault and 8.5’s on his reverse two-and-a-half somersault dives to give him a winning margin of over 23 points.
Josh Dowd also made it through to the final and finished in 10th place with a score of 342.40.
Day three of the six-day event in Arizona also saw British Diving’s Jessica Williams in action in the Girls A 3m Springboard (16-18) but narrowly missed out on a place in the final after a strong start that saw her in sixth place after seven rounds of diving.
Sixteen-year-old Williams turned around a disappointing 1m performance the day before with a focused and positive approach to her 3m event but unfortunately missed her final dive and dropped out of final contention by just 4 points.
On day four, British divers Max Brick and Oliver Dingley will go in the Boys A Group (16-18) 1m Springboard while Grace Reid and Hannah Starling compete in the Girls 3m Synchronised event.
For results from the event please Click Here
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