SANTO DOMINGO -- Diving is all about jumping in at the deep end, but Katura Horton-Perinchief did so in every sense of the phrase yesterday.

Competing in the Pan-Am Games in Santo Domingo, the young Bermudian had expected to just take part in the three-metre springboard after the cancellation of the one-metre event.

However, at the 11th hour she was given a place in the 10-metre platform event, something she has not tested herself at since March.

That she came 12th out of 12 competitors is neither here nor there, she deserves credit for just getting out there and giving it a go.

“I haven't been up there since March and I was only two points off the girl ahead of me and she has been practising,” she said with a smile after completing nine rounds of competition. “I did what I could this morning and did a little bit last night but you can't really launch into the platform.”

Horton-Perinchief led the competitors into the open air arena at the Olympic Stadium and was the first to dive. That, she said, was not a problem to her.

“I like being first,” she said. “I was done first and, if I was a little more confident, it's good to go first because you always hit your first dive and everyone else is shaking in their boots.

“I felt good (after the first one), a little sore, but I felt good.”

The US-based diver gave a realistic assessment of her overall performance.

“Everything could have been better,” she said. “And they would have been if I had been training. But mentally I was pretty good. I wasn't nervous.”

One dive in particular, where she began in the handstand position, she said, needed some work.

“I can hold a handstand but I was having some issues with that,” she said. “You don't start on your hands in springboard at all and it's four months since I've even been upside down. That was difficult to start with and there was also a bit of wind. But it turned out OK, I still got the dive in.”

Horton-Perinchief believes it took courage to do what she did yesterday and only her harshest critic might disagree.

“I am proud of me,” she said. “I think I did OK. I didn't kill myself or break any bones. I'm fairly pleased with that.”