Amy bounces back from injury and illness to land a ‘bonus’ Commonwealth bronze

Team England’s Amy Rollinson bounced back from injury and illness to win a ‘bonus’ bronze medal in the Women’s 1m Springboard competition at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

The 18-year-old admitted she is using the Games to gain experience but ended up with an ‘amazing’ podium place following a string of consistent dives.

She improved on her scores from the morning’s preliminary competition in every round to finish with a total of 272.00.

Rollinson, who sprained her ankle and then went down with Covid a month before the Games, said: “It’s amazing because I’ve not had the best preparation.

“I sprained my ankle about three, four weeks ago and then I got Covid [Covid-19] as soon as I got back from the World Championships.

“I had a week off and then I was back training to try to get back to normal. I was not doing hurdles for two weeks.

“I’ve been starting gradually doing them and it is just about building the confidence to land on my ankle again, because it’s the ankle that I land on that I sprained.

“I was going to change one of my dives three days ago because I wasn’t as confident on the hurdle, luckily it worked today.

Not expecting one

“I was turning up here for some experience because it’s my first major Games and third proper international ever.

“This [bronze medal] is a bonus. If I got one, I got one, but I was not expecting one at all.”

Yasmin Harper had finished second in the preliminary round but had a poor second dive in the final and finished in seventh spot with a total of 254.50.

She said: “I opened up okay, missed my second dive and that happens sometimes in diving.

“I’m really disappointed about that but pleased that I ended up finishing well.

“A medal would’ve been amazing. It wasn’t to be today and I can still say I only missed one dive, so I’m happy about that.

“That was a good experience before heading up to the 3m, because that one makes you a little more nervous. 

“This was a good starter.”