James Heatly wins first ever individual title at British Diving Championships

Local lad James Heatly won his first ever senior individual title after taking gold at the opening day of the British Diving Championships in Edinburgh.

The 22-year-old got off to a strong start during the morning’s prelims for the Men’s 1m dive, improving each round to eventually finish in top spot with a score of 358.60.

Heatly continued his good form in the finals, where his penultimate forward 3 ½ somersaults dive secured the Men’s 1m British title in his home pool, scoring an overall total over 390.00.

Jamaica’s Yona Knight-Wisdom (362.60) finished in joint second place with City of Sheffield diver Jordan Houlden (357.15) and Southampton’s Cameron Gammage came in third place (318.40).

Heatly said: “I’m really happy, it was a bit short of my personal best but it was my first ever individual title so I can’t complain, I’m very happy. This morning I was a little nervous, it’s been a while since I’ve done a 1m event so I think I took two dives to settle in.”

Kat Torrance was also on top throughout the Women’s 1m events, she finished first in the prelims and then went on to claim the British title in the afternoon session.

Despite a lower score for her back 1 ½ somersaults dive, the 2018 Commonwealth Games silver medallist maintained her focus to finish ahead, with a total score of 264.40.

“Overall I’m pretty happy with that, it was 20 points higher than this morning which is where I should.” – @Kat_Torrance#BDC2019pic.twitter.com/YlFIjwGcoZ

— British Swimming (@britishswimming) May 31, 2019

Torrance said: “That was pretty good, the score’s not bad, 264, I probably would’ve hoped for a little bit higher but overall I’m fairly happy. It was 20 points better than this morning which is really where I should’ve been sooner, ups and downs but overall pretty good.

“It’s been a pretty busy time having just done the World Series, I feel like I’ve been at home for a day, but everything’s been ticking over and I’ve just been getting on with it.

“Me and Grace [Reid] have been doing quite a lot of synchro training so I’m looking forward to seeing how good we can go and then the individual I’ve just got to take it as it comes. There’s a lot of good girls in the event at the moment so I’m just going to have to fight my own battle.”

Young divers Scarlett Mew Jensen (243.70) and Desharne Bent-Ashmeil (232.80) finished in second and third places.

The third session of the opening day saw the pairing of Emily Martin and Phoebe Banks (280.35) beat Eden Cheng and Lois Toulson (270.66) to the Women’s 10m synchro title.

With the final medals of the day going to Jordan Houlden and Anthony Harding after they scored a total of 381.69 in the Men’s 3m synchro final.

Jack Laugher and Dan Goodfellow (370.92) teamed up to win silver while diving brothers Jack and Ross Haslam finished in third place (342.48).

Day two of the British Diving Championships will see the Men’s 3m final, Women’s 10m platform final, Men’s 10m synchro and Women’s 3m synchro.

Our final medal of the day went to @antharding00 and @JordanHoulden – they claimed Men’s 3️⃣m Synchro 🥇 after scoring 381.69 in Edinburgh 👌🏼#BDC2019pic.twitter.com/z7fi2Itq1d

— British Swimming (@britishswimming) May 31, 2019

Picture: British Swimming Twitter