PLYMOUTH’S Oliver Heath secured Great Britain their first gold medal of the European Junior Diving Championships in Rijeka on Sunday evening.

Heath, making his European debut, won the boys’ B one-metre event in the Croatian coastal city.

He scored 376.55 points to finish seven points clear of Lithuanian Martynas Lisauskas, who took silver, with Germany’s Finn Awe finishing third with 356.15 points.

Heath was delighted with his podium-topping performance.

“I’m very proud considering it’s my first Europeans. I’m over the moon,” he said.

“I saw it was close between the top three and because we all have the same last dive it was a bit more nerve-wracking, but it all worked out.”

His Plymouth Diving team-mate Amelie Underwood just missed out on a medal in the girls’ B three-metre event.

She ended up fifth on her European debut, just six points off third place.

Underwood had qualified from the prelims in third spot, but in a three-way battle for the bronze medal she just lost out to Sweden’s Elly Ekback, with Germany’s Nina Berger fourth.

Ukraine’s Karina Hlyzhina took the gold, with Italy’s Beatrice Gallo from second.

Underwood and Heath will be competing again in individual events this week. Heath will go in the three-metre discipline on Thursday and Underwood will compete in the one-metre on Tuesday.

Fellow Plymouth diver Euan McCabe is also part of the Great Britain team in Croatia. McCabe will compete in the synchro event on Tuesday and the boys’ A three-metre event on Wednesday.