Wee Gracie they called her at the last Commonwealth Games, but she is not so wee any more .
. .
Grace Reid may be yet to turn 18 but she has grown 10 centimetres since competing in Delhi and is now the senior member of the Scottish diving team. Working through those teenage years can, of course, be a tricky business and all the more so if you are an elite diver, as Reid explained yesterday.
"I've grown up a lot and that's made my diving quite difficult because if you've got longer limbs you're less aerodynamic and your flexibility's obviously compromised. If you've got new muscle you've got to train that and work out where you have to be in the water," she said.
"You can't rush it. It's frustrating if you're trying to train and stuff's all over the place because you're working with what's basically a new body."
Reid, from Edinburgh, speaks warmly about how she felt adopted by the older girls at the last Games, in particular her room-mates who included Hannah Miley and Caitlin McLatchey, both colleagues once more in this 40-strong Scottish aquatics team, but admits she "likes being a bit closer in age range to some of the athletes".
"Last time I was like 10 years younger than some of them, but again there are a lot that this is their first Games so it's good that we can learn off each other."
That includes the only other Scottish diver named in the team yesterday since, for all that Reid is the senior figure in terms of both age and Games experience, she and James Heatly, her regular training partner, are very much of the same generation.
"The fact we train together keeps training light and it keeps it quite easy and bubbly which is what you need at six in the morning and you've got long, long sessions. You need someone to bounce your energy off, so that's good having someone who's youthful as well," said Reid.
Heatley has also brought another dimension into the camp since he is pretty much part of diving royalty, since his grandfather is Scotland's third most successful Commonweath Games competitor having claimed three gold medals, a silver and a bronze during a magnificent career.
"It is great having Sir Peter Heatly around the pool, he's got a lot of experience which means we've got a lot to draw upon," said Reid.
The blend of knowhow with youth could hardly seem better.
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