A series of spectacular somersault routines helped Southend Swimming Club diver Karen Smith clinch a top ten placing at her European Championships finals debut in Turkey.

Karen, who recently finished second in the UK national finals, jetted out to Istanbul at the weekend and finished a creditable ninth after beating off stiff competition from some of Europe's finest divers.

The 23-year-old, though, could have claimed an even higher placing if it wasn't for a small error in her last dive - a backwards one-and-a-half somersaults with two-and-a-half twists combo - which cost Karen valuable points.

However, Bill Clark, Karen's coach, said his pupil wasn't too despondent despite her last gasp mistake, which was penalised by the scoring pool-side judges.

"Karen was both happy and disappointed with the final outcome," he said.

"She was pleased to have finished in ninth position, although she wanted to do a bit better on her last dive.

"But once Karen takes on board what she has achieved in Turkey, I'm sure she will be able to realise that she dived really well overall.

"Karen scored above the Olympic qualifying standard in both the preliminary and the final rounds of this competition.

"But most importantly at this stage of her development Karen achieved her main target in making the finals of a European Championship and clocking up some consistently good scores."

Karen reached the finals after a preliminary heat last Friday against a field of 22 other divers.

She comfortably achieved her place above the cut as one of 12 contestants to make the final with a forward three-and-a-half somersaults dive, a routine which had let her down in the national finals.

In the overall final on Saturday Karen got off to a confident start with an excellent two-and-a-half somersault, followed by a not so good backwards attempt.

However, Karen recovered straight away with an amazing reverse two-and-a-half somersaults - her favourite dive - which scored eight from the judges and moved her up to sixth place on the leaderboard.

Karen kept in contention with another clever dive, this time a forward two-and-a-half somersault, but fell down the pecking order with that slip-up in her final dive.

Bill now plans to enroll Karen in a Sports Science programme to help her improve even further and build on her recent triumphs in preparation for future competitions.

"We hope to shortly introduce Karen into a a training programme which concentrates on psychology, physiology and strength," he said.

"She has so much untapped potential which we need to draw out and I see this specialist input as an important part of Karen's development."

Perfectly poised - Southend diver Karen Smith displays the kind of form that earned her a top ten placing at the weekend's European finals

(Right) Bitter sweet - for Karen Smith

Pictures: STEPHEN LLOYD

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