Tom Daley and Rebecca Gallantree win World Championships diving gold
Thursday 30 July 2015 09:06, UK
Tom Daley and Rebecca Gallantree won a brilliant diving gold for Great Britain at the World Aquatics Championships in Kazan, Russia.
Daley delivered a superb fourth dive in their six-stage combination in the team event, with four of the six judges scoring it a perfect 10.
The British pair totalled 434.65 points, putting them ahead of Ukraine, who took second place, and bronze medallists China.
It was the first time a mixed team event had been staged at the World Championships, and victory stunned Daley.
"We really don't know what happened there," Daley said. "We went into the competition as a bit of a warm-up for our individual events.
"But to come away with a result like that is amazing. I had my highest score ever on the armstand, Becky did one of her best front dives in competition she's ever done.
"I was a little bit nervous doing the dive from three metres because I'm not used to springboard diving. I actually thought I was going to hit my head on the board but I got nines for that dive."
Daley had been focusing on his speciality 10m platform individual event, which begins on Saturday, with Gallantree competing in the 3m springboard from Friday.
Thirty-year-old Gallantree, who took 10th place alongside Alicia Blagg in the 3m synchro on Saturday, said of the shared success with Daley: "I can't quite believe it. It's a bit surreal at the moment.
"To be honest, I'm gutted I didn't do a front like that in the synchro but obviously there's lots of positives to take out of it and I'm really looking forward to my individual now."
Their triumph followed the bronze won by Jack Laugher and Chris Mears in the 3m synchro on Tuesday, and gave Daley his second World Championship gold – six years on from landing his 10m platform title.
There was earlier success for Tonia Couch, as Daley's fellow Plymouth-born diver reached her fourth 10-metre platform World Championship final.
Couch's success means Great Britain are guaranteed a place in the event for next year's Olympics in Brazil.
