GB Diving – Barrow & Couch
In the South West we have produced some fantastic diving competitors at both national and international levels over the past few years.
Currently we have two ladies from Plymouth who are at the top of their game and looking to make 2014 a year to remember.
Sport South Devon will be following Sarah Barrow and Tonia Couch as they aim to take gold in this year’s Commonwealth Games in both the Individual 10m Platform and the 10m Sychro events.
Barrow has had a good start to the season, taking gold at the British Gas National Cup event, held in Southend in January.
After a strong 2013, Barrow will hope to build on this momentum during the coming season. In July last year, she managed to record the highest individual points total for a British female competitor at the World Championships held in Barcelona. Although Barrow narrowly missed out on a medal, she was still very satisfied with her performance.
2014 has only really got started in the last few weeks for Couch, after she dislocated her left knee in January during a training session. The speed of her recovery has been fantastic though, as many thought she would miss the start of the FINA World series that starts in a couple of weeks time in Beijing.
The girls are best of friends on and off the circuit. “Our friendship helps us through the good and bad times”, Barrow said. “When one of us is not quite at our best, the other one is there to motivate and help with any issues we might have. It’s also great to have a close friend when we’re both away from family”.
As a pairing the duo have known each other for many years and this translates well in the Synchro environment. In 2012 the girls produced a fantastic display to take gold in the European Championships. That year also saw Barrow and Couch compete in the Olympic Games in London. The girls finished 5th overall but were again the top European ranked pairing in the finals.
In 2013 the Plymouth based duo finished 5th in the World Championships but took Silver at the European Championships. They also defended their national title at the British Gas event taking gold with a score of 327.66.
The girls are now back training together and looking forward to a full events programme during this season.
The World Series takes place in Dubai, London and Moscow, after the Beijing opener. The girls will then move onto the National Championships in Sheffield, before the World Cup in Shanghai takes place in mid-July.
The season highlight will be the Commonwealth Games which will be hosted in Glasgow from 30th July – 2nd August.
Please follow the girls’ progress during the season with us as we wish them well in all competitions.
Click on the links below to find out more about the girls and their results and interviews in 2014. Plus read Sarah’s regular blog page and interact with her throughout the girls’ journeys to potential Commonwealth Games gold.
- Sarah Barrow Profile
- Tonia Couch Profile
- Reports & Interviews
- Sarah’s Blog
(Report by Matt Green (SSD), Images Provided by Sarah Barrow)
