Pete Waterfield stormed to double gold success this weekend, adding to his synchro win on Saturday by retaining his individual title yesterday at the British National Diving Championships in Southend.
Pete came out on top after competing against his synchro partner and World Champion Tom Daley in the men’s 10m platform, with the lead being passed to and fro between them. Pete, who teamed up with Tom to win the 10m synchro on Saturday, found himself disappointingly behind after his first three dives but he found it within himself to turn it around and retain his title. Last year’s competition saw Pete coming in off the back of an injury, but this year he was in fine form, showing his experience by performing 3 world class dives to take the gold. The Olympic silver medallist performed a reverse 3½ tuck somersault in his penultimate dive, scoring three 10’s for what was to be the winning dive and finishing with a final score of 494.25, comfortably beating his rival.
The first day of the competition, saw Pete partner Tom to win Gold in the 10m synchro, with the pair having only trained together twice and performing a dive considered to be the ‘toughest in the world’. The “Big Front” 4½ somersault dive is the weapon they intend to utilise in their attempt to take gold at London 2012.
When asked about his synchro success, Pete said “Diving with Tom was great. We performed our first 2 dives to a very high standard and would be in front of most pairs in the world, even the Chinese. Our new dive was ok, but we have done it a lot better in training so with more training and more competitions it will only get better. Overall it was a good performance for our first competition together, and a good starting block to build on.”
Commenting on his own performance and winning for 2 consecutive years at the British National Cup, he states “I was very happy with my performance in the individual as it’s the first competition of the year and after the first 3 dives I was behind and had a lot to do. I was very pleased about how I responded. My last 3 were pretty good but I feel there was a lot more in the tank and I will be looking to get higher scores in my upcoming competitions, but I was very happy to retain my British title.”
The victory represents even more of an accomplishment for Pete, as he currently only trains part-time whilst he juggles training with other part-time work to provide for his wife and two children.
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