Ben Cutmore clinches double medal diving delight at European Aquatics Championships

Ben Cutmore was shocked to earn two podium places at the European Aquatics Championships in Italy.

The former Cambridge Dive Team member earned a gold medal in the 10m platform synchro diving competition with Kyle Kothari in Rome, and followed it with bronze in the men’s individual 10m platform.

Cutmore, who was a student at Bassingbourn Village College, was making his debut at the European Championships, and in the synchro with Kothari, the Dive London duo earned 390.48 points.

Their title was underpinned by consistency throughout, and a back two-and-a-half somersault one-and-a-half twist in pike scored 76.80 to set the standard and ultimately clinch gold.

“For me, just missing out twice on a medal at the Commonwealth Games made me really hungry to get a medal here,” said Cutmore.

“When I woke up in the morning I actually looked at Kyle’s gold medal from the other day on the side and I was like ‘I want one of those’. Kyle told me to keep it chill, keep it steady and any medal is possible. I feel like I’ve been very driven here and I really like this pool so that helps as well.”

Cutmore’s bronze medal in the individual competition was much more of a surprise.

Despite a lower tariff list of dives on the 10m, Cutmore was the most consistent competitor in the contest, not getting a mark below seven.

He was only 0.30 points off the podium places after four dives, and closed his list with a back two-and-a-half somersault, one-and-a-half pike for a top score of 76.80 for a total of 438.35.

It gave Cutmore daylight to nearest rival Andreas Larsen, of Italy, and secured a first senior international individual medal.

“This week gets more and more surprising, that’s for sure,” he said.

“Not much really I can say other than I didn’t know I was doing the individual event until last week, so currently up until this point I’d only been training my synchro dives.

“So to jump back in the pool this week and do my reverse and handstand dive was quite daunting at first, but after I got acclimatised and comfortable with the pool then I was feeling confident in myself and was just going to come out here today and have a blast.

“This individual medal is something I obviously wanted to do, but it’s something I never thought I’d be able to do this early on in my career.”