Matty Lee wins fourth European medal with 10m bronze

Matty Lee won his fourth European medal in two years with 10m Platform bronze at the 2017 European Championships in Kiev.

The City of Leeds diver scored 485.55 to join France’s Benjamin Auffert (511.75) and Russia’s Viktor Minibaev (493.25) on the podium.

The 19-year old’s result adds to his Mixed 10m Synchro gold from earlier in the meet, while he won Mixed 10m Synchro silver and Team Event bronze at last year’s Europeans in London.

Lee’s final-day bronze also hands British Diving their sixth medal of a successful competition in which they finished third in the medal table.

And the English diver insisted his performances in Ukraine had been a confidence boost ahead of July’s World Championships in Budapest.

“My main goal was to bring the six dives good into the water today,” said Lee, who won the British 10m title for the first time earlier this month. “I think I succeeded doing that.

“I am very satisfied with my performance, especially as there were quite a few more competitors here who performed very well.

“The European Championships in Kiev were a good experience before the Worlds in Budapest.”

Lee excited to challenge on world stage

While Lee was a semi-finalist on his World Championship debut two years ago, his score in Ukraine – more than 100 points higher than his semi-final effort at the Kazan Worlds – suggests he could contend for a final berth this time round.

The young British diver was lying first after the opening two rounds and caught the eye with forward 4 ½ somersaults tucked in the final round.

Awarded 8.5s and 9s from the judges, he scored 96.20 – the highest score from any diver in the final – to leapfrog Ukraine’s Maksym Dolgov (468.50) and claim the third podium place.

Matthew Dixon finishes sixth

Plymouth Diving’s Matthew Dixon also impressed to finish sixth in the same final.

Dixon, who won silver behind Lee at this month’s British Championships, improved on his 395.90 in the prelims to score 430.80 in the final.

The 17-year old had already reached the podium in Kiev with 10m Synchro bronze earlier in the Championships.

British 3m champion Katherine Torrance made her only appearance of the Championships in the 3m Synchro.

Teaming up with Scotland’s Grace Reid, the British pair were lying second with one round of dives to go.

But while they finished strongly with 62.10 for their back 2 ½ somersaults piked, they found themselves missing the podium by just 0.3 points.

Torrance and Reid finished on 283.50 as pairs from Russia (304.80), Germany (284.10) and the Netherlands (283.80) claimed the medals.

Image credit: Deepbluemedia/Giorgio Scala

  • Click here to view full results from the 2017 European Diving Championships in Kiev.
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