Harding and Houlden save best until last to win European Championships bronze

Anthony Harding and Jordan Houlden saved their best until last as they overturned an eight-point deficit to win Great Britain’s sixth European Diving Championships medal in Ukraine.

The duo were fourth going into their final dive of the Men’s 3m Synchro in Kiev but achieved their highest score of the competition to leapfrog local favourites Oleksandr Gorshkovozov and Oleh Kolodiy and take the bronze medal.

Their four-and-a-half somersaults in tuck position earned them 82.08 points for a total of 387.60 and enabled them to claim the final podium place by 1.05 points.

Harding said: “I was very nervous before my last dive.

“But I knew that was our favourite and most consistent one so I was sure it was going to go well.

“We were expecting fourth or third place in the final. We knew that also depended on the others, but I knew we definitely had a chance for a medal.

“We have the bronze now so we are very happy.”

Harding and Houlden were 11.04 behind the silver medallists, Germany’s Patrick Hausding and Lars Ruediger (398.64), and 48.09 adrift of the Russian duo of Evgenii Kuznetsov, Nikita Shleikher (435.69) who won gold.

Meanwhile, Katherine Torrance and Scarlett Mew-Jensen were in action in the Women’s 1m Springboard final.

Torrance had qualified from the preliminary round in third spot with a total of 252.40, while Mew-Jensen was 10th on 228.75

However, Torrance couldn’t repeat her performance in the morning session and ended in sixth place in the final on 249.40 – 17.30 points behind the gold medallist, Russia’s Vitaliia Koroleva (266.70).

Mew-Jensen did improve on her preliminary round score as she finished with a total of 238.20 that earned her 10th place.

Picture: Deepbluemedia / Giorgio Scala