TONIA COUCH has no doubts the decision to test her toughest dives in the heat of competition will pay dividends in the long run.

Plymouth Diving's Couch trialled the most difficult of her dive tariffs at the British Championships at Southend.

Although Couch didn't achieve the double medal success she had last year in Southend, she said that by achieving a perfect 10, she won a bet which saw Tom Daley have to plunge fully-clothed into the pool.

The 22-year-old came away with a gold from the 10m synchro but had to settle for a silver in the individual event, the gold being claimed by Couch's 2008 Beijing Olympic Games' dive partner Stacie Powell.

Couch now competes in the top-board synchro competition with former Plymouth Diving and now Leeds-based international diver Sarah Barrow.

The pair are bidding to claim a place at the London Olympics as Britain's number one combination.

The Plymothians will get their chance again at this month's FINA Diving World Cup at London's brand-new Aquatic Centre (February 20-26).

The World Cup is an Olympic test event for the Games and athletes will be competing to win a place for Great Britain, not themselves, which comes later in the year.

Couch won an individual slot for the UK after reaching the finals in last year's World Championships in Shanghai.

She acknowledged she had wanted to come back to Plymouth with an individual gold, but she backed coach Andy Banks' strategy of getting all the dives in her tariff 'out there', with a heavy set of fixtures coming up ahead of the Olympics.

Couch said: "Overall, I was pretty pleased with what I did and the tricky dives like the 3½ inward where I was spinning like a top, gave me a lot of confidence.

"Stacie had a great final day but I'm getting these dives out there as Andy is encouraging me to in competition, as I'm doing them okay in training.

"Although I didn't come home with individual gold, I won a bet with Tom.

"It was really funny. I said to him, 'If I get a 10, you have to jump in with your clothes on'.

"And I had a 10 on a reverse 2½, so in he went."

TONIA COUCH and Plymouth Diving club-mate Brooke Graddon are taking part in a sponsored walk in Central Park, Plymouth tomorrow (10am) to help raise money for Couch's cousin and cancer patient Gemma Kerswell.