The Daily Telegraph du lieu suivant : London, Greater London, England • 44

S4 sport.telegraph.co.uk Friday, January 21, 2005 THE DAILY TELEGRAPH sportfriday New trio take the Britain's synchronised diving silver medalists coach our columnist to leap off the board JIM WHITE THE view from Leon Taylor and Peter Waterfield's office window must be the most terrifying in world sport. The work station of Britain's silver medal-winning synchronised divers is perched so high above a swimming pool in Sheffield that you half expect it to be swathed in its own cloud system. "It looks high on television, it looks much higher when you get poolside." Taylor had warned me before we began the long climb. "but just wait till you get up there." He wasn't wrong. Rarely had I been that high up without an air hostess insisting that my seat belt was securely fastened.

"The thing is," Taylor said, as I inched gingerly towards the edge, "the board itself is 10 metres, your eyes are about two metres above that and your eye doesn't register the surface of the water, you're looking all the way to the bottom of the pool, which is a further six metres down. So the total drop appears to be nearer 20 metres." Frankly. you peer over the board's lip into a pool reduced in scale to the size of an -pod. such calculations become an irrelevance. Up there you are lost in admiration 1 for anyone who would go off attached to a parachute and swathed in padding.

never mind those to dive into air and srotectired essay three complicated twists and somersaults. all the while dressed only in a pair of Speedos. "I won't lie and say there's nothing to worry about." Taylor said. "You hit the water at over 40mph. so you can do yourself damage if you don't enter properly.

Tip backwards and you can puncture a lung or split your spleen. I've seen people coming out of the pool coughing up blood. Go too far forward and belly flop and they'll be fishing you out with a net. I got disorientated once, tried to do too many turns and landed in the seatdrop position. It felt like someone had taken a scalpel to my scrotum." "First time I went off from this height.

was only Waterfield said. adding to a growing feeling that this was no place for a coward. "I hit the water at the wrong angle. whack. I had never hit anything as hard as that before.

My hands were black and blue." And what happened then? "Couldn't wait to get back up and do it again." Taylor, 26, and 23-year-old Waterfield have involved in synchronised diving throughout its entire history as a sport. Their first competition together, when they were 17 and 14. was the first World Championships. At the Sydney Olympics. the discipline's debut in the Games, came fourth.

and returned home barely noticed beyond the narrow confines of professional plunging. "We did one interview with local radio and that was the extent of it." Waterfield recalled of 2000 "After Athens it was a bit different." Indeed, so different was it, coming second. registering Britain's first medal of the Games and the first in diving for 40 years. that Taylor only got himself back into the water in November. "I went wild for five weeks, behaved appallingly, put on a stone," he said of his celebratory binge.

"Then there was the media work and I've done motivational speaking, we feel we've got to take the opportunity to spread the message about our sport. But selfishly. the best bit is going round schools: you don't much more of a buzz than watching a seven put on your medal and their face lights up. I'm not being paid millions. but for me that is reward." In fact.

the pair reveal, their trip up top with me is the first have been to tne high board since Athens. "I'm a little bit nervous." Waterfield said. "Since my son was born. I dunno. fear's definitely come into it.

But then I love the challenge of overcoming that fear." As it happens. diving from 10 metres is only a small part of their six-hours-a-day. six-days-a-week training schedule, as they start to prepare for the World Championships in Montreal in July. "Blimey, yeah," Taylor said. "The toll those dives take on the body, you can't do them every day." Instead they spend most of their time in the gym.

or on a trampoline, or suspended from pulleys above crash mats, choreographing their spins. As a result, they are probably the most flexible individuals in British sport. Taylor, before he led me to the top, demonstrated one routine which involved hanging from wall bars by the arms, then slowly swinging his feet up above his head and keeping them there for minutes on end. All this with weights attached to his ankles. "You're fighting against gravity, so you've got to be strong enough to cope." he explained.

And as can be seen from the pictures of them in full twist and spin in Athens. their faces distorted like a Jim Carrey edy moment, the g-forces are enormous. "We got our silver medal from 10 seconds' work," Taylor said. "But it was four years of full-time training that got us to that position. I'd love to be starting in the sport now.

There's a much better system than when we began, thanks to the Lottery: kids get structured training. they mix with people like Peter and myself, they get professionally coached. When we do the British Championships now. it's basically an exhibition. But that's going to change, there is talent coming through that can really take the sport on." Not from this quarter.

Taylor and Waterfield could not have been more patient coaches, taking me from poolside up the various platforms to the top, honing my jumping technique (yes, jumping: I remembered what Taylor had said about the consequences of the belly flop). At the five-metre board they leapt in with me, making us Britain's first synchronised jumping trio. Or rather we would have been, had they managed to keep in time with me. "When I say former diver turns to boxing Triple Olympian Tony Ally feels his chances of success are better in the ring than in the pool By Gareth A Davies WHILE two of Britain's most accomplished Olympians, Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell, announced they would either taking a year out from their sport or retiring, a less-celebrated but no less determined former out, from Brendan Ingle's Olympian was at pains to point cobank gym in Sheffield, that he was about to embark on a new career after three Olympic Games as a diver. As Cracknell learns about soiled nappies and teething issues, and Pinsent puts on his slippers and sucks on a retirement pipe, six gold medals between them, Tony Ally will be taking up professional boxing.

The 31-year-old will not be the new 'Muhammad Ally', but if you think he is not serious, consider this: he has been preparing for his new lease of sporting life assiduously for the last three years, in the same St Thomas' Boys Club gym where former world superfeatherweight champion Naseem Hamed learnt his trade. He spars regularly with WBO cruiserweight champion Johnny Nelson and world champions Junior Witter and Esham Pickering. This is no pipe dream. "I love it in the ring," said. "I've always liked rugby, boxing, physical sports.

I just wish I had started boxing 20 years ago." PICTURES LLUIS Ponds For Sheffield three, two, one, Go', try to go on the like we do," Taylor said as we attempted our fifth for the photographer (the first had featured the pair of them in perfect alignment, and just the soles of my feet peeking into the top of the frame). "The problem is, you are tending to go off on the Which wasn't strictly accurate. I was going off "Oh my Talk about terrifythe rush of air through the body as you fall, the sensation of tumbling, the smack on the water. the odd disorientation as you plunge deep into the pool (once, in an underwater panic. I collided with Waterfield, giving me the dubious distinction of having kicked an Olympian in the head).

And that was just from half-way up. "The adrenalin rush is something else," Taylor said. "God knows where I'll get my kicks when I retire. But I won't be diving past Beijing. Peter might be there in 2012, if London gets it." "Definitely," Waterfield said, "though I'll be looking for a new partner." To be honest, as he spoke, I don't think he was sizing me up as a candidate.

Not after I decided that the only way I was coming down from that 10-metre board was via the steps. hard, too. but most impressive is his ease and dynamic movement in the ring. I am reminded of what Ally told me last summer, when he first revealed Telegraph Sport that he would take up boxing when his Olympic career was over. "Be a rough diamond, but always be ready to have those final few edges sharpened." That's how he chose to describe himself.

He seems to be having those edges sharpened under Ingle, who explained: "We will turn Tony professional. We haven't got an exact date yet, but he has all the qualities of a great fighter. I believe he could even become a champion." Ally did not hear these words. He was away, doing his pad work. But there is an obvious reverence from Ally towards Ingle, and Ingle clearly respects the man who walked into his gym three years ago and took to boxing with an alarming pace.

"In six months, he picked up the moves boys have been working on for three or four years," said Ingle, who can see Ally fighting for an area title or even a British title. There is only one problem, however, that Ally still has to reckon with. is Lotteryfunded as a diver, and will compete at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006. A serious injury in the ring, a muscle pull or strain, and that funding could be jeopardised. "I'm desperate to get into the ring and take up boxing he said.

"I'd have been in there a already if it weren't for the worry of losing the Lottery funding." Whatever the future holds, this is one man who deserves a fighting chance in his ambition to compete in the toughest sporting environment on earth. COPPI AVOId ROBERT PHILIP Why Hopkirk loved the ice LIKE most of the nation. the Family Philip engaged in any number of annual rituals seemingly inexplicable to outsiders. On the stroke of midnight on Dec 31. for example.

my father would fling the front and back doors of our house he it rain, sleet or snow "to let the old year out and the new year In the 1950s the month of January begat another tradition: though we did not own a car and had scant interest in motor sport, I would be bundled up in winter coat. balaclava, scarf and gloves to catch the tram into the centre of Glasgow to witness the start of the Monte Carlo Rally in Blythswood Square. As I recall. the 'Monte' also began in seven other cities Paris. Stockholm.

Warsaw, Athens. Lisbon. Frankfurt and Monte Carlo itself all exotic sounding places to someone who had never been further than Blackpool. Off down the ramp the Ford Zephyrs. Sunbeam Talbots and Renault Dauphines would roll in a blaze of headlamps and cacophony of horns.

off through the snow. A ice and mountains of Europe. "Frequently, they'd only go a couple of I I hundred yards before colliding with a Glasgow tram in the fog and that was their Monte over." recalls Paddy Hopkirk. the victor in 1964 in a Mini Cooper. Whereas the competitors who will descend upon Monaco this Sunday at the climax of the 73rd Monte Carlo Rally will be backed up by teams of mechanics and technicians (and assisted by every conceivable on-board gizmo), the daredevils of 50 years ago breezily set off armed with a spade, a torch, a road map of Europe.

dinner suits for the 'Monte Ball'. and a As Hopkirk. who describes his victorious Mini (number 33EJB) of 38 years ago as a "modified shopping explains: think that's why we caught the public's imagination. The world is much smaller today when people travel halfway round the globe just to go on holiday. Back in Monte Carlo was a faraway place.

dripping in mystique." Such was that mystique. I can even remember an early episode of the BBC radio comedy show Hancock's Half Hour (featuring guest voice-overs by Raymond Baxter and Brian Johnston) in which the intrepid lad entered the 'Monte' in an 1896 banger thoughtfully provided by Sid James. When entry No 101 Captain Tony Wheels Hancock driving a 39-year-old AJY Special inevitably broke down before the start on the journey from East Cheam to Glasgow and Sid suggested they give up. Hancock was suitably indignant: "Give up! For the last 10 years me and that car have been at the starting I line." To which Sid retorted: "And stayed there!" After various adventures and skulduggery (like putting the car in the guard's van and taking the train to Dover). Hancock duly 'won' the rose.

In Monte Carlo the whole Principality turned out to see the Prince present them with a cheque for 200,000 francs. Whereupon Hancock woke up from his dream to discover that he had been given a parking ticket for being stuck on the starting line for four days. Hopkirk and his co- Henry Liddon. who was later killed in a plane crash, were invited on to Sunday Night at the London Palladium on their return, when the orchestra played Rule Britannia and the audience gave them a standing ovation. "With World Championship points at stake now.

it's true to say the current drivers probably don't have as much fun as we did. The modern rally car is a Formula One car in sheep's clothing." explained Hopkirk. who would stop at the side of the road en route to collect ice for his gin and tonic. "Also. we didn't have the same TV coverage in our day.

So the folks back home used to crowd round the wireless for news of our progress, which all added to the fascination of the event." It is my opinion that what the Monte Carlo Rally has gained in sophistication has been at the cost High life: Peter Waterfield (left) and Leon Taylor with Olympic medals and (centre and right) with a shorts-clad Jim White in Sheffield Ally had a tough upbringing in Catford, south-east London. Diagnosed with a hearing disorder as a child, he lost his brother at the age of nine but reasoned that his brother's voice had spurred him on for 19 years. Prison, he said, could have been a possibility before he found a sporting discipline. "I always felt that he was sitting, on my shoulder telling me I be out there making things happen." Such inspiration led to Ally winning his first senior national diving title at the age of 12, a record in itself, despite having to rely on lip-reading his coach. It was pride which precluded him from wearing what he calls "the old, ugly, cumbersome hearing aids as a That changed before the last Olympics, when Ally received a digitally advanced 'Senso Diva' hearing aid.

It has made difference in the pool. Ally hit the headlines in Atlanta in 1996 when he sold his Olympic kit to raise money. Eighteenth in Atlanta, individual event and seventh in the synchronised diving in Sydney 2000, Athens was his Olympic swansong. Ally finished outside the medals, and with his Olympic career over he has taken to the ring to find the level of achievement he aspires to as a sportsman. His body honed through hours of strenuous gym work and gymnastic prowess, Ally took up boxing when his friend, Johnny Nelson, urged him to visit Ingle's wonderful, shabby home which reshapes the lives of misfits and upstarts.

Ally used to kick-box as a kid, but only as training. "Brendan inspired me to move on. I've lost two stones since I've been training here, my body fat has gone down to of that fascination. Seles seeks happy ending PICTURES: FRANK HUMPHREY Gad New twist: Tony Ally the Olympic diver becomes Tony Ally the boxer almost zero and my timing, flexibility and mental focus in diving have all improved. I spar with Johnny in the ring and work with the pads and the bags, and it has changed my life.

I feel more self-satisfaction, more confidence." This is a man who knows how to dig deep. He came back from a motorcycle accident, when he was on holiday in Italy in 1998, which almost destroyed all the muscles in his right arm. "It was so bad that they took my forearm muscle out and re-grew it. I thought my career was over." It wasn't, because Ally is teaktough, with a determination to match. A year later, in Seville, he came back to win European gold, the first British diver to be crowned European champion.

"What many people don't realise I didn't until I started boxing WHILE the teenage sensation endlessly travelling from one of women's tennis the airport, one hotel, one Russian Maria Sharapova tournament to the next? continues her attempt to add "Because it sounds like fun; I the Australian Open to her can't to see London, Wimbledon title of last Rome, San summer, a previous adoles- Life to Seles became a cent phenomenon will be never-ending giggle. And practising on the private why not? Born in the court of her home in Sara- Yugoslavian industrial town sota, Florida, in the hope of of Novi Sad, within sniffing making one last comeback. distance of the noxious fumes At the venerable age of 31. from a nearby chemical Monica Seles (pictured in plant, Seles swiftly acquired 1999) is busily preparing for everything she had seen in two exhibition matches the movies. against Martina Navratilova At 16, she owned a in New Zealand next month, Lamborghini she was too after which she will decide if young to drive, lavished a the foot injury which has good proportion of her sidelined her for the past 20 annual millions at Versace months will stand up to the and Tiffany, flew first class rigours of a full-time return.

around the world, and kept "If the time has come and mum, dad and brother in a my career is finally over, then manner to which they had so be it." Seles said. "I've had never dreamed they would a wonderful career, but if I become accustomed. can eke out just a little bit By the she had more to finish on a happier won eight grand slam note rather than playing in championships. The giggling constant pain, then that stopped on April 30, 1993, would be fantastic." when a crazed knifeman I first encountered a emerged from the 15-year-old Seles at the spectators in Hamburg 1989 French Open at and stabbed Seles in Roland Garros (where the back during a she would lose change-over in her to Steffi Graf in match against three sets in Magdalena the semi- Maleeva, after final) when which she was every day lost to the sport was a 'fun for years. day'.

The injury What do below her left you think shoulder-blade of Paris? was a "It's superficial the shops flesh wound, are neat." This but her sense of was accompa- fun had been nied by the sliced away. trademark Woody Against all Woodpecker he- odds Seles he-he-HE-he returned to giggle. Are you win her fourth looking forward Australian to Wimbledon? Open in 1996, "Oh yeah, it'll but would be fun playing never again be on the happy-goWhy do you lucky lass. May I want to be a wish Monica a champion, triumphal return. is that we need exactly the same conditioning as boxers, diving is one of those becausere you use everything: movement and speed, with difficult shapes.

You have to super-flexible, with very high muscle tone." "That's just like boxing," piped in Ingle, who has turned up at the gym with one of his young charges. "All the same qualities. The only difference in boxing is that instead of hitting the water, you are hitting, and being hit, by another man." Ingle said that if Ally had taken up boxing as a teenager he would have been a world champion. He delivered this astonishing assessment with not a hint of bravado. "His skills are incredible for such a big man." Watching Ally going through his routine with Ingle, you can see the edge he has physically.

He hits.