Lee and Toulson land first British medal with Mixed Platform silver

European champions Matty Lee and Lois Toulson won British Diving’s first medal of the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest with silver in the Mixed 10m Synchro.

The City of Leeds pair scored 323.38 to finish behind China’s Ren Qian and Lian Junjie (352.98) on the podium.

The teenagers’ result brings the British team their first 10m Synchro medal at a World Championships since Pete Waterfield and Leon Taylor won bronze in 2005.

“We feel really good right now,” said 19-year old Lee. “China are so strong and it’s tough to beat them but we knew we just had to keep calm and focus on ourselves. It feels so great to win that silver medal.

World Championships debutante Toulson, 17, added: “It was amazing to win that silver. We’re a really good partnership. We both train in the same place and we’re really good friends which really helps.”

Lois Toulson and Matty Lee performing a synchronised twist dive at the 2017 World Championships

English pair add to domestic and European titles

Lee and Toulson have been untouchable in the Mixed 10m Synchro event this season.

They won domestic titles at the National Cup and British Championships then claimed the European crown in Kiev last month.

But there was further improvement at this year’s showpiece event as the Brits sailed past their score of 308.16 from Ukraine.

While they lay sixth after the opening two required dives, the English pair jumped into fifth with their first optional, scoring 70.20 for their forward 3 1/2 somersaults piked (107B).

Another 76.80 points for their inward 3 1/2 somersaults tucked (407C) took them into second before the Brits consolidated their position with 79.68 for their final dive, a back 2 1/2 somersaults, 1 1/2 twists piked (5253B).

Mears and Laugher finish fourth in 3m Synchro

Olympic champions Chris Mears and Jack Laugher finished an agonising fourth in the 3m Synchro final.

While they were placed second after four rounds, a poor dive in the penultimate round put paid to their medal hopes.

The Brits ultimately finished on 418.20 with pairs from Russia (450.30), China (443.40) and Ukraine (429.99) filling the podium places.

Meanwhile, there was encouragement for another Leeds diver as Kat Torrance finished ninth in the 1m Springboard.

Like Toulson, the 18-year old is competing at her maiden World Championships in Hungary.

And having scored 255.60 to progress through a 42-diver field in the preliminaries, Torrance took her score up to 275.90 in the final.

  • Click here to view full results from the FINA World Championships 2017 in Budapest.
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