With this year’s Diving World Series getting underway in Beijing this weekend, England’s Sarah Barrow admits she has her eyes firmlyfixed on a return to the medal rostrum following her successes in 2014.

Last year the 26-year-old wrote her name into the history books when she claimed Britain’s first female individual European diving gold since 1927 when she topped the scoring in the women’s 10m platform final in Berlin.

That competition came just a few weeks after she had clinched silver at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow alongside 10m synchro partner Tonia Couch.

Andit also proved to be a busy time on the World Series circuit with Barrow and Couch picking up silver in both London and Windsor.

A period of well-earned rest followed for the Plymouth diver although she laid down a marker of intent for the new season with individual silver and synchro gold at the British Diving Championships curtain raiser in her home town earlier this month.

And with back-to-back competitions in both Beijing and Dubai in the coming weekends welcoming in the World Series campaign, Barrow knows the importance of turning in the performances once again, especially with the World Championships in Russia on the horizon this summer.

“We have got six World Cup series to come before the Worlds, they are almost like practice competitions for the Worlds so it is important to do well at those first,” she said.

“I’m looking forward to getting started and then we have the London leg in May in front of our home support which will be good.

“If we can try and get on the podium that will put us in a good position to aim for a top-three finish at the Worlds in July.”

Barrow’s silver-medal winning performance in Glasgow was actually her third Commonwealth Games appearance following outings in Melbourne and Delhi.

She failed to medal in either of those – a fourth in 10m syncho her best effort at Delhi 2010 – before a second-place finish in Scotland brought the diver her first Commonwealth medal.

And with Gold Coast 2018 possibly proving one step too far for Barrow, she admits Glasgow 2014 will always hold special memories for her.

“Although I’ve been to Commonwealth Games before, Glasgow was my first experience of getting an individual medal,” she added,

“The women’s diving is very competitive at the Commonwealth Games, more so than the men. The top four teams, three of them had won medals on the World circuit the week before.

“We were a bit disappointed to come so close to the gold but to get a silver was still great. 

“It was quite hard coming off the back of the Worlds, but it’s something we really enjoyed. It’s a friendly Games and a competition that is still very important to us as athletes.

“It’s a couple of years until Rio and then it’ll be a couple of years more until the Gold Coast at which point I’ll be 29 so we’ll see what happens.”

© Sportsbeat 2015