Grace Reid and Jordan Houlden soared to the first titles of the year as they turned in classy performances to win the Women's 1m Springboard and Men's 3m Springboard gold respectively on day one of the Aquatics GB Diving Winter Cup.
Six months on from reaching Olympic finals in Paris, Grace and Jordan both showed their quality at the start of the 2025 season.
In the Women's 1m Springboard finale, Reid came out on top of an extremely close contest, where the top six were separated by fewer than 15 points.
Sitting second after three dives, the Aquatics GB Performance Centre London athlete made her move in round four, with a strong execution of her Inward 1 1/2 Somersaults Pike (403B) bringing 51.60 points from the judges. She then closed out with a 55.90-point-worthy Forward 2 1/2 Somersaults Pike (105B) to finish on top of the podium on 255.60, ahead of silver-medallist Desharne Bent-Ashmeil (also AGB Performance Centre London), who also saved her highest score for her closing dive to end on 250.70. World and European Junior medallist Tilly Brown (Sheffield Diving Club) took an impressive bronze on 246.50.
"It was good, it's crazy how it just feels so normal to be back competing again - and we've had like six months since Paris! It feels really good to get back out there again. I still need a bit longer to get myself fully up to where I want to be, but I'm really pleased to get the season underway," said Reid.
"You just always want to put your best foot forward, you always want to do your best - even if it's a smaller competition that serves a certain purpose. Every time you compete, you want to show your best, and it's hard, because you've gone from peak physical condition at the Olympics, and then you have a bit of a break - and the last thing you've done is your absolute best, so it's really hard to psychologically and physically balance that, it's quite challenging."
That was followed up by an exemplary return to competition for Houlden, who finished close to 100 points clear of the field to take Men's 3m Springboard gold.
From the moment he nailed his opening Forward 2 1/2 Somersaults 2 Twists (5154B) to score 79.90 from the judges, he led the way - with his fourth-round, 3.9 degree-of-difficulty Forward 2 1/2 Somersaults 3 Twists (5156B) bringing 87.75 points.
Ultimately closing on 485.55 points, the Sheffield Diving Club man was not far off his pre-final target of 500. Matthew Dixon (Aquatics GB Performance Centre London) took silver on 386.70, with Cameron Gammage (Southampton Diving Academy) rounding out the medal spots on 356.75.
"It's quite nerve-wracking coming back after an Olympic final, to be fair. I'm always thinking that people are going to be looking at me now, so it's quite nerve-wracking - but I came back, did my first dive and then literally just got into a rhythm and just dove, doing what I normally do. I enjoyed it!" he said.
"It's nice to see everyone diving and competing against each other again. There are a few missing from this 3m, you've got Ross [Haslam] and Jack [Laugher] [not in that event here], Anthony [Harding] is trying to get back in there now, so you've still got to stay on top of everything. And even if they're not in, you've got to set a benchmark to aim for - so I was trying to aim for 500, I didn't quite get it but it was close. I will be getting that 500 at some point!"
For full results from the Aquatics GB Diving Winter Cup, visit DiveRecorder - and you can watch every session live on our YouTube channel.
Saturday's action begins with the Men's 1m Springboard, leading into the Women's 10m Platform.