British Diving squad selected for ‘exciting’ new Diving World Cup

A 12-strong British Diving team has been selected to take part in World Aquatics’ new-look Diving World Cup event throughout 2023.

The three legged event, which replaces the previous diving World Series, will begin in April with Great Britain’s team containing a host of Olympic and European champions.

Eleven of those selected are English divers who will be looking to continue their impressive form from 2022 on the world stage.

The team contains six Team England gold medallists from the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix, Jack Laugher, Daniel Goodfellow, Anthony Harding, Matty Lee and Noah Williams.

Joining them will be European champions Lois Toulson and Ben Cutmore, Yasmine Harper – European bronze medallist – World junior medallist Desharne Bent-Ashmeil and Tokyo 2020 Olympian Scarlett Mew-Jensen.

Scotland’s 2022 Commonwealth champion and World Aquatics Championships medallist Grace Reid completes the British line-up.

Xi’an, China will host the opening leg of the competition from 14-16 April before the group travel to Montreal Canada for the second leg on 5-7 May.

The top 18 divers in individual events and the top eight groups in the synchronised and team events will then qualify for the third and final leg – the Super Final – which will take place in Berlin, Germany from 4-6 August.

Winners at that competition in the German capital will be crowned the inaugural World Aquatics Diving World Cup Super Final champions.

‘The future is bright’

The new format will see all individual events going straight from a preliminary round to the final, with synchro and team events competed in straight finals. There is also increased prize money available for all of the athletes competing.

And Laugher, who is a World Aquatics Athletes Committee Member, is excited about what the new-look competition brings for the future of the sport.

He said: “I really felt the mojo with the Diving Working Group and where we are setting up the sport for the next years, heading into the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

“The future of our sport is bright. I’m excited about the upcoming changes we’ll see in diving. From the refinement of the competition format to having a deeper prize pool, we’re making this sport even more attractive for athletes.

“This gives me, my peers and future generations more to aim for and achieve in this beautiful sport.”

British Diving Head Coach Alexei Evangulov is looking forward to seeing the team in action, adding: “We are very pleased to have these key competition opportunities confirmed for our 2023 schedule, as we ultimately build towards the World Championships in July and then the Olympic Games next summer.

“These Diving World Cup events give our athletes the chance to compete against the very best competitors from across the globe and to test the work we have been putting in in training and at our domestic events.

“We know the team we have named will make the most of these opportunities, and we’re looking forward to when the time to compete arrives.”

You can find out more about the Diving World Cup here.