Matthew Lee was in supreme form in the men's platform final ©Getty Images

Britain earned double gold on the final evening of the Baku 2015 European Games diving competition here today as Katherine Torrance clinched the women’s 3 metre springboard title with the last dive of the event, while Matthew Lee dominated the men’s platform final.

Lee had qualified in second position for the final behind Russia’s Nikita Shleikher, who won one metre springboard gold just three days ago, but the Briton produced a stunning display to lead from the close of the first of five rounds.

Having received 86.40 points from his opening two dives and a score of 81.00 from his third effort, Lee had established a comfortable advantage over the rest of the field and two solid final dives gave him a winning total of 588.25.

Despite delivering a series of excellent dives of his own, including an armstand back triple somersault which scored 90.75 points, Shleikher finished 31.7 points behind in the silver medal position, posting a final total of 556.55.

Alexis Jandard earned bronze for France on 526.20, finishing well clear of fourth-placed Matthew Dixon of Britain.

Katherine Torrance won gold with the final dive of the women's three metre springboard
Britain's Katherine Torrance won gold with the final dive of the women's 3 metre springboard ©Getty Images

There was further success for Britain as Torrance secured gold in the women’s platform event in a closely-fought competition.

Torrance had qualified in first place but was forced to come from behind to seal the gold medal ahead of Russia’s Ekaterina Nekrasova, who produced a series of solid dives throughout the four rounds of competition.

Ukraine’s Diana Shelestyuk led after the opening two rounds, producing two high quality dives to move her onto 334.10.

A poor third dive sank her hopes of claiming the title, however.

Nekrasova assumed the lead heading into the final round of the competition.

She was forced to settle for silver, though, as Torrance's final dive, a back two-and-a-half somersault in tuck position saw her earn 61.60 points, enough to leapfrog the Russian into first place with a winning score of 448.25 points.

"I don't like the pressure but it clearly does good things to me,” said Torrance.

“Winning a gold means everything.

“If you can do it here you can do it wherever and it gives me a lot of confidence.”

The Russian’s overall score of 443.05 points was enough to secure silver ahead of Germany’s Saskia Oettinghaus, who completed the podium, accumulating 418.35 points from her dives.




Related stories
June 2015: Heatly takes grandfather Peter’s diving advice - and European Games gold
June 2015: Russia claim women's water polo title at European Games after penalty shoot-out win
June 2015: Russia earn double European Games diving gold with synchronised springboard and platform victories
June 2015: Toulson wins European Games diving gold for Britain as Russian success in pool continues
June 2015: Russia complete clean sweep of Baku 2015 synchronised swimming golds