Sarah Barrow insists she and partner Tonia Couch head into the forthcoming World Aquatics Championships full of confidence following their results in this year’s Diving World Series.

The 10m synchro duo came away with double bronze and silver from the six-leg series earlier this year, enough to place them third overall in the standings.

That result was even more impressive considering Barrow had been struggling with an ongoing shin injury which had hindered her ability to train full-time.

After a period of rest and recuperation, the two are now gearing up for the 2015 World Aquatics Championships, which are this year being held in Kazan, Russia.

The diving is the first of the sports to take centre stage staring on July 24 and Barrow, winner of 10m platform European gold and 10m synchro silver at the Commonwealth Games last year, is relishing the chance to go up against the world’s best again, insisting there is plenty more to come from her and Couch.

“We know can score well against the pairs who will be at the World Championships having done so in this year’s World Series. Canada was a great example of that where we got silver,” she said.

“I’d say we were at about 80% by the end of the World Series, we know where we were going wrong and what we need to work on for Russia.

“Overall it was a good World Series. We got a silver and two bronzes and having had a bit of a difficult start, we were pretty happy with how things have gone.

“It was all about the preparations for the World Championships.”

Barrow and Couch will be aiming to reach the final of both the individual and synchro events in Russia, with a quota place at next year’s Olympics in Rio up for grabs for any diver who progresses into the medal competitions.

And while a shin injury has made for far from perfect preparation so far this year, Barrow can’t wait to see the results when she is finally firing on all cylinders.

“In competition time it’s actually fine, it tends to just be trying to train with it where the problem is and obviously training is crucial to results. You want to be training free in order to get the results,” she added.

“But it’s going to be six weeks break in total between the end of  the World Series and the World Championships so there’s time for the new painkillers to have an impact while also having a bit of break from things.

“It’s frustrating having a lingering injury but you can still look at the positives. If that’s how well I can perform with an injury, then with the new painkillers hopefully I can step it up with more consistency.”

© Sportsbeat 2015