England's latest diving medallist at the Commonwealth Games, 19-year-old Hannah Starling, has admitted that she didn't expect to earn a place on the podium.
Starling, from Leeds, performed consistently throughout this evening's final at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh to finish in third place behind Australia's Esther Qin and Jennifer Abel of Canada.
Speaking to reporters moments after finding out that she had won a medal, a teary Starling said: "I did not expect a medal at all. Going to that final, I didn't think I had a very good two dives.
"In my head I was thinking 'I've not done too well' but I somehow pulled it back with my last three. I cannot believe I finished in third."
It is a first medal at senior international level for Starling, who insisted to Sports Mole that she had no idea that she was in the running for a medal.
"No I had no idea," she said. "I was like although I might get the result I want from these five dives, I've still got to do one good last dive to show that I can dive as well as I can."
Starling's medal takes England's tally at the diving to nine, and they could hit double figures as Tom Daley goes in the last competition of the meet - the 10m platform final.
Pascal Lemesre
