Teenagers Cheng and Toulson win diving gold at European Championships

The innocence of youth, they say, brings insulation from fear. Eden Cheng, 15 years young, betrayed little sign of nerves or trepidation when she stood beside Lois Toulson on the highest board above Edinburgh’s Royal Commonwealth Pool on Tuesday and threw herself towards the great blue yonder.

The European Championships is her first major diving competition. It will forever form part of her storybook. Sitting in fifth place after three rounds, the teenagers rebounded to land gold in the 10m platform synchro event after five leaps of faith that overtook rivals from Russia and Germany.

Descents and a rapid rise, all in one. “I am very happy with the transition,” Cheng said. “Just to think that last year, I did my first international for Great Britain, and now I’m standing here at the senior Europeans. It’s amazing.”

Jack Laugher, at 23, is an old hand with an Olympic gold stashed away and he captured victory in the men’s 1m springboard event on 414.60 points with James Heatly securing bronze in a repeat of their positions at the Commonwealth Games.

“It is very obvious to see how strong we are,” Laugher said. “We have fantastic depth and we have a huge range – all the way from world champions to junior level. British diving is going from strength to strength.”

In Glasgow, there was a splash of a different ilk made by Duncan Scott who overcame his berth in the outside lane to secure a brilliant 200m freestyle gold at swimming’s European Championships. Twice a relay silver medallist at Rio 2016, the 21-year-old is rapidly emerging as an individual force.

“I had a lot to do between the semi and the final, a lot to change,” he said. “I’m delighted I’ve managed to correct a couple of things and put in that performance. One of them was going out a bit faster – I reckon I did that – unless everyone went out really slow.”

There were also golds for GB’s Ellie Faulkner, Kat Greenslade, Holly Hibbott and Freya Anderson in the women’s 4x200 freestyle relay, silvers for Ben Proud in the 50 backstroke and Georgia Davies in the 100m backstroke, while Molly Renshaw took bronze in the 200m breaststroke. Adam Peaty eased into Wednesday’s 50m breaststroke final.

Unexpectedly, the concluding British track gold of cycling’s European Championships in Glasgow fell not to a pair of proven performers but to a fresh face. Matt Walls landed victory in the men’s elimination race on Tuesday to win a fourth gold for the hosts. A fifth was expected shortly afterwards in the women’s madison from Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald but they came fourth.

Walls, the 20-year-old from Oldham, beat 19 riders to take his maiden senior title by denying Portugal’s Rui Oliveira when the battle was reduced to two. “It isn’t on the Olympic schedule but it is on the omnium so I just need to see how it goes,” Walls said.

Kenny and Archibald were nowhere near their potent prime, well adrift of the Netherlands in bronze with the Danish pairing of Amalie Dideriksen and Julie Leith holding off Russia’s Gulnaz Badykova and Diana Klimova for gold.

“It was horrible,” Kenny said. “We made so many mistakes and in a race like that, you cannot do that.”

With Katy Marchant sixth in the women’s keirin, the final of 10 British medals – a tally which left GB second to the Dutch in the overall standings – fell to Jack Carlin, who snatched bronze in the men’s event.