Commonwealth silver medal-winning England diver James Denny has revealed that the pressure of competition helps, not hinders, his execution.
Denny was seen this morning producing flawless dives in training for the Commonwealth Games individual 10m platform, but couldn't quite bring his A-game in the preliminary round as he failed to score more than 80 on any of the six dives.
However, he did set the sixth-highest score of qualifying with 408.40, which is just six points shy of his personal best at 10m.
On competing in front of an expectant crowd, Denny told Sports Mole: "In a way it's harder, because you feel more pressure that you've got to dive well in a competition than in training. In training you just kind of do it.
"But also in a way it gives you that little bit more adrenaline in the competition to nail it. Usually you find it's the other way around, and you find that you're doing them average in training and really really well in competitions."
Last night Denny produced a near-perfect forward four-and-a-half somersault in the final round with Tom Daley to win silver in the 10m synchro, but today in the individual he could only produce a score of 59.20.
When asked how fine the margins were with his hardest dive, Denny added: "Obviously it's such a hard dive, spinning around four-and-a-half times, so it's all about the takeoff.
"If you get a good takeoff, the end's going to be there but if you don't get a good takeoff then you've just got to hope for the best."
Tonight's final - which is the last diving event of the 2014 Commonwealths - starts at 7.30pm at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh.
Pascal Lemesre
