James Heatly and Ross Haslam of Britain, Ilia Molchanov and Nikita Nikolaevof Russia and Frithjof Seidel and Nico Herzog (L-R) of Germany present their medals after the synchronised 3m springboard finals at the 1st European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan. (Reuters)

Reuters/Baku

In 2008, a 14-year-old Tom Daley captured the imagination of the British public at the Beijing Olympics and if performances at the inaugural European Games are anything to go by, Team GB have a host of young divers poised to follow in his footsteps.
In an impressive display of diving at the Baku Aquatics Centre, Britain’s juniors garnered four golds, one silver and one bronze from eight events, suggesting Daley’s 2009 world title could soon be matched by any one of the current crop.
James Heatly led the way for his teenaged team mates when the 18-year-old claimed medals of all three colours, including a silver alongside 17-year-old Ross Haslam in the synchronised event, across the men’s springboard diving disciplines.
Matthew Lee and Lois Toulson added gold medals in the men’s and women’s platform events, and Katherine Torrance was victorious in the 3 metre springboard competition in the Azeri capital.
“This has to be one of the strongest teams we’ve ever taken to a European championships,” Haslam told Reuters on Monday. “I think everyone here could have got a medal and everyone managed to reach the final.
“We’ve got a massive group of youngsters now so hopefully us doing well will spur some of them on.”
Much of Team GB’s success can be attributed to the Talent Identification (TID) programme that was implemented in 2003 and aims to identify potential future medallists and nurture them through the crucial fledgling years of their diving careers.
In the 12 years since its introduction, nearly 500,000 youngsters have been assessed in high-performance centres and talent development clubs with two percent selected to join the programme.
The success of Daley, who also won a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics, has boosted the profile of the sport and helped create a programme saturated with potential future medallists.
“We are right up there in Europe and even in the world with people like Tom Daley,” Lee told Reuters.
“Not many people knew diving before then and it wasn’t a popular sport. Words can’t describe how much he’s done for diving, it’s incredible what he’s done and we’re all so glad.
“We’re incredibly strong and we are so successful. We’re really good (at identifying and nurturing talent) because we’ve had so much success.
“We are getting closer and closer to that gold medal and who knows? In Rio (the 2016 Olympics) or Tokyo (2020 Olympics) we might get that gold.”