OLYMPIC silver medallist Peter Waterfield made a winning return to the pool as he struck double gold in his first competition since last summer's Athens Games heroics.

Waterfield, who won Britain's first Olympic diving medal for 44 years alongside Sheffield diver Leon Taylor in the 10m platform synchro final in Greece, was head and shoulders above his colleagues in the 1m Springboard final at Ponds Forge in Sheffield on the opening day of competition at the British National Diving Championships.

Waterfield also went on to triumph in the 3m springboard synchro final with fellow Olympian Tony Ally later yesterday afternoon.

Waterfield scored an impressive 400.59 points from his six dives in the 1m individual competition, the best of which saw him record 41.5 for his opening forward, two-and-a-half somersaults dive. The 2002 Commonwealth 10m champion was always in control and led from the morning's preliminary dives with 374.04 points.

Behind Waterfield, Plymouth's Gareth Jones took silver with 336.33 points, while Blake Aldridge of Crystal Palace collected bronze with a score of 322.74.

In the 3m springboard syncrho final, Waterfield and Ally turned on the style to win gold with a score of 357.12 points, beating Benjamin Swain and Aldridge (silver), and Gary Hunt and Tom Owens (bronze).

It was the first time the pair had teamed up for two years, having also dived together before the 2002 Sydney Olympics.

Ally's regular diving partner, Mark Shipman. also from Sheffield, is on his honeymoon in South Africa, so Waterfield was only too happy to act as a stand-in partner.

"That was a good start for me, hopefully now I can go on from here and win two more golds this weekend," he said.

"It's been tough getting back into training and also because my pool shut down for a few weeks, which made it hard to train.

"But I was pleased with they way I performed, especially getting a personal best in the 1m final."