Courtesy: Swim Ireland
Ireland’s Jake Passmore made history today, winning a first-ever European diving medal for Ireland as he claimed bronze at the European Junior Diving Championships in Otepeni, Romania this afternoon.
Competing in the Boys 1M Springboard, the 17-year-old had an impressive preliminary round this morning, scoring the highest points after ten dives with 461.90. Although Passmore had the highest points, he started the final in fourth place, as at junior level, competitors first five dives in the preliminary round are required dives and their scores are carried into the final. The second five dives in preliminaries are optional and competitors can then choose to repeat these, or to change them in the final.
Starting almost 30 points behind the gold medal position in the final, Passmore put in a fantastic performance, scoring 54.25, 40.50, 66, 61.50 and 51.40. The Leeds-based diver was the only competitor to complete the tricky forward, three and a half somersault pike with a degree of difficulty of 3.3, which paid off as his highest score in the final.
Passmore’s 455-point total was good enough for Bronze in the end, behind the Italian duo of Matteo Santoro (478.15) and Stefano Belotti (478.10) and ahead of Great Britain’s Leon Baker (444.65).
A delighted Passmore said: ‘I’m really happy with my performance and to be the first Irish diver to get a medal at junior Europeans is overwhelming. I can’t wait to see what comes next.’