European Games 2023: Great Britain's Eden Cheng wins women's 10m platform gold
- Published
Eden Cheng won her first senior gold medal aged 15 at the 2018 European Championships
Great Britain's Eden Cheng clinched a sensational gold medal with her final dive in the women's 10m platform final at the European Games in Krakow.
A high-scoring fifth dive lifted the 20-year-old from fourth place to first, edging Germany's Christina Wassen by less than one point.
Cheng, who finished on 331.60 points, also secured Team GB a quota place for the event at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Team-mates Grace Reid and James Heatly won mixed synchronised 3m silver.
The British pair, who won Commonwealth Games gold for Scotland last year, led the competition after three of five rounds but their chances suffered a blow with a low-scoring fourth dive.
However, they were able to rescue second with their final attempt, finishing on 283.89 points - behind Italian winners Chiara Pellacani and Matteo Santoro on 291.39.
Another Briton, Robyn Birch, was fifth in the women's 10m platform, won by Cheng.
"Very happy, slightly relieved, a bit emotional - I'm feeling a lot of emotions right now!" Cheng said.
"There was pressure, but for me there's an advantage diving after someone as it gives me motivation that I want to do it better and that spurred me on."
Quota places guarantee someone from Great Britain will compete in that Olympic event in Paris, but not necessarily the athlete who earned it.
Cheng's gold is Team GB's second of the Games, after Kieran Reilly won the BMX freestyle on Thursday.
Elsewhere at the European Games on Friday, Maddison Moore won taekwondo bronze for GB, battling back to defeat Israel's Avishag Semberg 2-1 in the women's -49kg third-placed bout.
In archery, Ella Gibson broke the women's 50m compound qualifying record - which had stood for eight years - shooting a total of 715 out of a possible 720 during the competition's ranking round.
"Last year I shot 712 three or four times, so that's been really frustrating," Gibson said. "It means so much to be able to finally do this."
Team-mate Penny Healey shot 681 in the women's recurve ranking round to improve her own British record, placing second behind Ukraine's Anastasia Pavlova.
Meanwhile, Rafe Stokes and Matthew Fall became the first male sport climbers to represent Team GB, with both men exiting in the quarter-finals.