The chances of Australian Diving picking up medals at next year’s Commonwealth Games received a boost on Sunday with strong showings from two Olympic medalists at the Queensland Open. Former gold medalist Matthew Mitcham won both the 3-metre springboard and 10-metre platform titles, while Melissa Wu was successful in the women’s platform. Mitcham and Wu have both spent long periods out of the pool this year battling injuries, but showed in Brisbane they are strong Glasgow medal prospects. Both divers missed this year’s Barcelona World Championships, but will be close to full fitness by the Australian Championships in December. Wu says she dived cautiously but was happy with the result. “I was really happy with my score, especially considering I did one easy dive on my list instead of the hard one I normally do,” she said. “It didn’t feel too painful today, just a bit stiff. It gives me a bit of trouble but I’ve been training with it and competing with it for a while now so I get used to it. Today gives me a lot of confidence because I haven’t competed much this year. “There were things that could have been better still, but overall I didn’t really drop a dive. I’m aiming to compete the way I train, there are things I can work on still but overall I’m pretty happy with it.” Yesterday Anabelle Smith, another Olympian who’s been dogged by injury this year, won the 3-metre springboard final. Next weekend attention will turn to Sydney when most of Australia’s top divers will compete in the New South Wales Open.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 09:04:16 +0000