Tonia Couch: Winning World Series bronze 'a bit crazy'

Tonia Couch has described becoming the first British woman to win an individual medal at the Diving World Series as "a little bit crazy".

Reigning British champion Couch, 23, won bronze in the 10m platform event in Mexico at the weekend.

"It's not really sunk in yet, it's a little bit crazy to think I've won a world medal," she told BBC South West.

"It's quite exciting to think that it was me that's done it. I've trained so hard."

Plymouth-born Couch and finished fifth in the Olympic synchronised event with Sarah Barrow.

The pair are also the reigning and and won bronze at last year's World Cup.

At the weekend, Couch registered her first ever perfect score of 10 in her final dive to secure the medal.

"My first four dives weren't the best, I was a little bit disappointed because I knew I could do a lot better than that," she said.

"My coach Andy Banks told me 'you can do this dive, let's do it like you can', so I went up the stairs, focused on what I had to do and I just went to the end of the board, did it, and got my first 10 internationally.

"Sometimes you get to the end of the board and you kind of forget what you're doing because you've got so much going on in your head, you forget that there's hundreds of people watching you and you forget that you're 10 metres high."

Couch trains in her home city with Barrow and former world champion Tom Daley at the new Life Centre pool.

The facility, which was opened last year, has made a huge difference to her training regime.

"We've got a better gym, we've got a bouncy floor, two trampolines and the pool is big enough to do synchro with Sarah," she added.

"I used to have to travel to Leeds or she had to travel to Plymouth at the old pool, and just do a little bit of work because it wasn't perfect."