In a day to remember at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre, the Australian Diving Team secured two gold medals, their first of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Icons of Australian diving Anabelle Smith and Maddison Keeney put forward the strongest list in the Women’s 3-Metre Synchro event to take home an elusive Commonwealth gold for the duo.

“I feel really proud,” Smith said.

“Maddi and I have been together for a long time, but we have never won this Commonwealth Games gold medal.

“We knew we put in the hard work to get it and we knew we were good enough to stand on the top of the podium, so to actually be there today was really special.”

Keeney noted that it was in large part to the years of training together that gave the pair a competitive advantage over their opponents.

“It’s been years and years; we’ve been diving together for ages,” Keeney said. 

“There’s been so many tough teams over the years and even now all the divers are amazing. It’s so much hard work and all the athletes understand that.”

The medal holds special significance for the pair following a mistake in the same event at the Gold Coast 2018 Games which cost them a position on the podium.

“Maddi and I had a bit of an upsetting Gold Coast campaign in synchro where we had the chance of getting on the podium,” Smith said. “It was really good to get that one back today.”

“That was a really big learning curve,” Keeney added. “This now feels like a culmination of what I’ve learned as a diver and shows that I can overcome nerves and change how I approach competition, so being able to do that just shows me what I am capable of.”

“It’s the redemption arc.”

As a duo, Keeney and Smith now hold an Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup and Commonwealth Games medal. It is the first gold for the Aussies at a major multi-sport event.

For what was next for the pair, Smith joked, “world domination”.

Esther Qin and Brittany O’Brien in their first international outing as a synchro partnership finished fifth after a round four mishap. The Malaysian and Canadian teams finished in silver and bronze positions respectively. 

Through a determined effort in the Men’s 3-Metre final, Shixin Li put forward a confident six dive list to finish fifth in the final rankings. Sam Fricker finished 10^th in the competition, which was ultimately won by England’s Dan Goodfellow.

Li will return to competition on Monday in the Mixed 3-Metre Synchro event with partner Maddi Keeney. Fricker competes in Sunday’s Men’s 10-Metre.

In the final event of the day, the Women’s 10-Metre Synchro, the dynamic duo of Melissa Wu and Charli Petrov put on a show and landed themselves on top of the podium.

It is the third Commonwealth Games gold medal for Wu who made her debut at the Games as a 13-year-old at Melbourne 2006.

At those Games, in the same event, Wu took home silver alongside synchro partner Briony Cole. Now, with more than a decade and a half of international experience under her belt, Wu was in a position to help 14-year-old Petrov to the gold medal position.

“It’s just crazy,” Wu said.

“I love that I’ve been able to have such a long career in diving but then to be able to do synchro with Charli and see the next generation come up, that’s the best feeling ever.

“I want to be able to help the next generation as much as I can and for me it just means so much.”

“We feed off each other a lot so it’s great to be able to dive with her and stay nice and calm and in control, it takes a long time to develop that in diving and the fact that she is doing that at such a young age is amazing.”

For Petrov, it was a nerve-wracking day ahead of competition, but she displayed composure well beyond her years.

“It feels like the most amazing thing ever,” Petrov said.

“I reckon the past 24 hours have either been through tears or anxiety so to go out there and to go with a gold medal is amazing.

“I believe that it’s not over until the end, so you’ve got to keep pushing until the end because anyone can pull great dives out of their hat. 

“You’ve got to work hard for this, it doesn’t just come.”