The inaugural edition of the championships has brought 65 competitors from nine nations to compete at Ponds Forge across the weekend.
The opening day of Aquatics GB Diving International action saw the Men’s 3m Springboard and Women’s Platform events take centre stage in Sheffield, with Jordan Houlden and Eden Cheng becoming the first ever winners in this new entry to the diving calendar.
Houlden - who produced the standout performance in the morning prelims as 24 competitors were whittled down to 12 finalists - was joined by Anthony Harding and Ross Haslam in the Men’s 3m Springboard medal contest, and the Performance Centre Sheffield diving trio traded dives of the highest quality as the international stage came to home soil for the first time in seven years.
Continuing the fine form shown in qualifying, Houlden put himself top of the rankings in the second round of the final and only furthered his hold on the title as the competition progressed to amount a personal best total of 498.35 from the judges.
Completing his list on a sublime Forward 4½ Somersaults Tuck (109C) for 93.10 points, Houlden was delighted to begin his season on a high.
“It feels brilliant, to be able to do it in front of my home crowd and the place where I’ve trained since 2008 is incredible,” he said.
“I saw where I was after five rounds and thought it’s got to be good to get 95 points and break 500 points, so I went for it and it was just shy. I’ve come close to it a few times now and it’s getting there.
“Overall I think today puts me in a really good place off the back of last year, where I’d say I had a really good performance at world championships, and hopefully I can carry this onto the world cups and into the summer.”
For Harding and Haslam, a close battle unfolded to be on the podium due to competition rules only permitting two-per-nation to receive a medal. Haslam delivered one of the dives of the afternoon with his own Forward 4½ Somersaults Tuck (109C) effort for 91.20 points in the fourth round to move into second, but Harding’s consistency on a list of lower dive difficulty saw him pip his teammate on the standings by just 3.60 points to take silver, while Jules Bouyer of France took bronze as the fourth placed finisher overall.
“The last week couldn’t have gone any better to be honest, I felt pretty calm today,” said Harding.
“I’m probably an athlete now that doesn’t need as much experience, but actually returning to the individual is a new challenge for me. I know I don’t have the dive difficulty [currently on my list] so I just need to do my own thing and fortunately today went my way.”
Meanwhile Eden Cheng stormed to victory in the Women’s Platform with a string of four 60-plus dives across her five rounds to post a golden tally of 306.50 points.
The peak of Cheng’s finals dive list came in the third round as her Inward 3½ Somersaults Tuck (407C) received 65.60 points – marking a strong improvement on her prelim effort in the morning.
“I definitely had a lot more to give after the prelims, so I was ready for that fight and wanted to show off all the hard training I’ve been doing,” said Cheng.
“I’m really happy with everything I did – I just wanted to stay calm and enjoy the competition having not been on this kind of stage for a while. Sheffield is a special place to me being where I won my first senior British national title in 2022, and winning my first kind of big competition this year is a really good setup for the season ahead.”
Fellow Briton, Tia Mai McGarry placed fourth on 257.15 points as she closed the chapter on a 16-year diving career in front of friends and family at her home pool in Sheffield.
Competition continues on Saturday with the Men’s Platform and both Men’s and Women’s 3m Synchro events, before the Women’s 3m Springboard and Men’s and Women’s Platform Synchro contests conclude the schedule on Sunday.
Follow Aquatics GB social medial channels for competition updates, with live results on DiveRecorder. Remaining tickets for the Aquatics GB Diving International weekend action can be purchased on the door in Ponds Forge.