A diver plummeted down the standings at the European Championships after becoming disorientated causing her to belly flop into the pool, to the dissatisfaction of onlooking judges.
Elma Lund was celebrating her 21st birthday by competing in the preliminary rounds of the women's platform event in Rome. After three of five qualification dives the Norwegian was in the final of 12 qualification places for the evening's final sitting on 140.45 points.
However, it was on the fourth dive when her competition unraveled misjudging her entry into the pool and performing a belly flop which caused judged to award her marks of between 0.5 and 1.5 totaling 8.70.
Her Norwegian coach grimaced as Lund hit the water with a belly flop and making a big splash. One word summed up the dive for BBC commentator Leon Taylor who said simply "ouch".
He added: "The take-off is...not doing her any favours. She is leaning back way too far and then completely gets disorientated. Her coach can't even hold the camera straight because she hits the water in such a position."
Lund responded with a respectable fifth and final dive but finished qualification in 15th place out of 16 divers and failed to qualify for the final. Winning the qualification session was British diver and teenage sensation Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix.
Despite being the youngest diver in the final Spendolini-Sirieix, aged 17, won amassing 330.60 points from her five dives to be crowned European champion. It was another crown for Spendolini-Sirieix, daughter of TV celebrity TV personality Fred Sirieix, after winning two golds and a silver at the Commonwealth Games earlier this month.
