England's teenage gold medallist Jack Laugher has expressed his pleasure at the way he handled the pressure of being the favourite for the men's 1m springboard final at the Commonwealth Games this evening.
Laugher was by far the best in the lunchtime preliminaries and then stormed to the gold medal in the final with a score of 449.90, which was 45 points better than second-placed Matthew Mitcham and a new personal best.
"Diving last, everybody was putting the pressure on me, but I think I handled it really well," Laugher, 19, told reporters this evening. "To come away with a PB and a gold medal here is just fantastic."
Although he won gold at 1m, Laugher's strongest event is actually the 3m springboard, an event in which he recently won bronze at the World Cup, and he is confident of adding to his medal tally in both that and the 3m synchro with teammate Chris Mears, who just missed out on a medal in the 1m.
He added: "I've got my main event tomorrow, the 3m individual - I finished third at the World Cup only two weeks ago in Shanghai. Then I've got the synchro with Chris as well.
"I'd love to add to [my gold medal], that would be amazing."
Of the three gold medals on offer at the first day of Glasgow 2014 diving, England won two of them and claimed a silver in the other final. Alicia Blaggs and Rebecca Gallantree were surprise winners in the synchronised 3m springboard, while Sarah Barrow and Tonia Couch just fell short of gold in the synchronised 10m platform.
Pascal Lemesre
