Sarah Barrow

Sarah Barrow (born 22 October 1988) is a British retired diver who competed in several LEN European Aquatics Championships and Commonwealth Games, where she won multiple medals.

Sarah Barrow
Personal information
Born (1988-10-22) 22 October 1988 (age 35)
Plymouth, England [1]
Height1.63 m (5 ft 4 in)[1]
Weight52 kg (115 lb)[1]
Sport
ClubPlymouth Diving
Coached by2010 onwards Andy Banks [2]
Medal record
Representing  Great Britain
European Championships
Gold medal – first place2012 Eindhoven10 metre synchro[3]
Gold medal – first place2014 Berlin10 m platform[4]
Silver medal – second place2013 Rostock10 metre synchro[5]
Representing  England
Commonwealth Games
Silver medal – second place2014 Glasgow10 m platform synchro[6]

Career

Sarah Barrow was born on 22 October 1988.[7]

Barrow competed at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in the 10 m synchro event with Monique Gladding.[8] The team finished in fifth.[8] She competed in the same event at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, this time with Tonia Couch.[8] They finished fourth, and replicated this result at the 2011 European Championships.[8]

Barrow won the gold medal at the 2012 European Championships at the 10 metre synchro event, with Tonia Couch.[3] They scored a then personal best of 319.56 points, beating the Ukrainian pair by 8.88 points.[3] This was the first European medal awarded to female British divers in 74 years.[3] The team of Barrow and Couch had finished in 4th at the preceding World Championships in 2011.[3]

Barrow represented Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics, in the 10 m platform synchro event with Tonia Couch, and at the 2016 Summer Olympics, in the 10 m platform individual event.[9][10]

The team of Barrow and Couch were unable to defend their European title in 2013, finishing with a silver medal.[5] That year, Barrow finished fourth in the individual 10 m platform event at the World Championships.[8]

In 2014, Barrow won Commonwealth silver in the 10 m synchro event, with Tonia Couch.[6] That year, she also finished 4th in the individual 10 m at the World Championships, the best result ever for a British woman.[11] At the European Championships in that year, she won the gold medal in the individual 10 m event, the first individual European gold medal for a British woman in 87 years (1927), and first individual medal of any colour since 1958.[4]

Barrow and Couch were split up by British coaches in the synchro event in early 2016, after Barrow had struggled with shin injuries and a non-cancerous tumour.[12][11] This was despite the fact that Barrow and Couch had been the pair who secured GB's Olympic place in the 10 m synchro event.[13]

Later career and retirement

Barrow retired after the 2016 Summer Olympics, where she placed in fifth place with Couch in the 10m synchro.[11] For the last 6 years of her 13-year career, she trained at Plymouth Diving Club.[2] She also studied Sport Science at Leeds Metropolitan University.[14]

References