BROOKE GRADDON has offered some advice for Team GB diving chief Alexei Evangulov – 'don't write me out of your Olympic plans just yet'.

Plymouth Diving's Graddon believes she has a point to prove to British diving's Russia-born performance director and to others who may feel the 23-year-old's best days are behind her.

Graddon intends to crash the GB selection party at the National Championships in Essex at the end of the month.

Now 'touch-wood' on her way back to a full recovery from a shoulder problem and four years of other injury setbacks, 10m platform individual and synchro athlete, Graddon, is keen to make up for lost time.

And to prove to anyone who is watching – notably Evangulov – she is still a force to be reckoned with.

Graddon points to her runner-up place to fellow city diving international, Tonia Couch, who took gold in the 10m platform finals last year in the British Gas National Cup, that when fit she is a threat.

A European Championship bronze medallist in 2009, Graddon has been plagued by illness and injury over the past four years, but insisted she is 'diving pain-free' at the moment, following an operation which looks to have cured a torn tendon in her shoulder.

In order for her to train twice daily and also hold down a job painless, Graddon has been having cortisone injections.

And as a former British 10m platform champion (2008), Graddon is aware that timing with an eye-catching and podium-gaining performance, particularly in this Olympic year, would throw her name back into the selection hat.

Graddon told Herald Sport: "Touch-wood, I'm very much fully recovered from the shoulder problem and really looking forward to competing at the national champs.

"I've not been able to train and therefore compete since the latest injury arose last year.

"So other divers have kind of forged ahead, while I've been left to recover in the background.

"It has not been the greatest experience of my life, as you might imagine, and it has been the lure of competing at the London Olympics which has kept me sane at times.

"I've had brilliant medical treatment and the back-up has been great too, and I certainly feel back to my best.

"Fully-fit, I know I can do as well as anyone on the British team and I'm really focused on using the nationals as a springboard to, hopefully, competing in the World Cup at the Aquatic Centre in London in February.

"If I could do that, then that would raise my profile and, hopefully, enhance my chances of impressing Alexei as well as possibly winning a (10m platform) place for Great Britain at this year's games.

"I'm an outside bet for the Games, I know, but I'm not going to give up on that ambition – while there is a chance, however, slight, I'll be giving it my best shot."

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