Houlden doubles up on gold as Spendolini-Sirieix shines

Saturday’s finals action in Sheffield was another example of the green shoots of form for Britain’s divers at the start of the new calendar year.

The Men’s 1m Springboard opened proceedings with a nip and tuck contest that saw Jordan Houlden gain momentum throughout his list and build towards a second title winning points tally of the meet.

The City of Sheffield diver had Anthony Harding (Leeds Diving) to catch after the early rounds, with the Paris 2024 synchro bronze medallist on a national individual event start list for the first time in two years – however Houlden’s exquisite Reverse 2 1/2 Somersault Pike (305B) in the fourth round capitalised on results faltering elsewhere and jumped up into the lead.

Rounding out his remaining dives solidly with a further two 70-plus point dives saw Houlden take gold on 406.90 points, just ahead of Dive London’s Matthew Dixon (396.55) for successive days of springboard competition, with Harding (391.75) completing the podium in bronze position.

Giving his reflections after stepping off the podium, Houlden commented:

“I feel incredible after that to be fair – this morning I felt a little bit beaten up because I tried my best yesterday [in the 3m]. I was just a bit zapped for energy earlier, but this afternoon I’ve pulled it together and put a good list down.

“I don’t know [where the energy came from] – it’s honestly the competition feelings you get, especially for a final there’s a feeling that just energises you and I use that.”

On starting the season well, and areas of focus going into the year he added:

“This is a nice place to start my season, my home pool where I train day in and day out - so I do know the pool. The boards are new, they only got installed last week so that’s still new to me, but it is really nice to be in my home pool and get both the 1m and 3m gold medal at the Winter Cup.

“The last couple of years it was more about getting consistency, and I’d say this season is all about getting a nicer end to push into the higher points, add a bit more form on everything and the little things that can be improved at the start or end of a dive.”

The Women’s 10m Platform final followed with an eye-catching series of dives from Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix (Dive London) a repeat of her strong morning prelims performance to take the Diving Winter Cup title ahead of 2024 World Junior medallists, Maisie Bond (City of Sheffield Diving) and Hannah Newbrook (Dive London).

An opening round opening Armstand Back Double Somersault 1 1/2 Twists (6243D) for 86.40 points truly set the tone of Spendolini-Sirieix’s performance, with nothing less than an eight from the judges counting on her scorecard across any of the five rounds.

“It feels really good, I’m so happy to be back – I give glory to God because even with the required to be getting a score like that is really motivating and it makes me really excited for what’s to come.” said Spenolini-Sirieix after stepping off the podium,

“We’ve been really working on technique so it’s quite hard at training, and I’ve been juggling uni as well so I’m not training as much as I used to, but my quality has definitely increased.

On taking things steady after her post-Games break from the pool, the Paris 2024 bronze medallist commented:

“Yeah you can’t just rush into things straight away, you have to really take it slowly and allow for your body and mind to readjust. Alex [Rochas] is really good at helping me to adjust, grow and get stronger.

“It is lovely to see so many familiar faces, and nationals is always fun – it’s a way for me to enjoy competition and get back into that routine of competing. Having family here is what’s most special to me as when back diving in front of a crowd they’re the only ones I look for.”

For full results from the Aquatics GB Diving Winter Cup, visit DiveRecorder - and you can watch every session live on our YouTube channel.

Sunday's action begins with the Women's 3m Springboard, leading into the Men's 10m Platform.