Silver for Laugher and Mears at Diving World Cup

Jack Laugher and Chris Mears had to settle for a silver medal at the FINA Diving World Cup after a dramatic 3m synchro springboard final in China.

The Commonwealth Games champions were leading going into the final dive, in Wuhan, but a rare error from Laugher saw home favourites Cao Yuan and Xie Siyi snatch the gold medal.

Laugher and Mears finished on 440.64 points, 8.10 points behind the Chinese pair. Mexicans Jahir Ocampo Marroquin and Rommel Pacheco Marrufo took the bronze medal with a score of 435.72.

Cao and Xie led after the first three dives of the event but were 10.14 points behind Laugher and Mears after the fifth round.

The Leeds-based duo had just executed their best dive of the competition in the penultimate round, a forward two-and-a-half somersaults, three twists in the pike position, which scored them 91.26.

But Laugher’s error on their last dive, a forward four-and-a-half somersaults in tuck position, meant they only picked up 70.68, allowing the Chinese duo to take gold after they scored 88.92 for the same jump.

Laugher was pleased with the first five dives and says he will learn from the performance.

Mears happy with silver

“Our first five dives were very good and we were winning,” said Laugher. “But it was unfortunate that my last dive did not perform to my normal standard.

“I was just diving as normal before my last dive but, unfortunately, I struggled with my last rotation. But overall, I’m happy with our first five dives.

“I want to have a good rest and find out what I can learn from this performance and I hope I will not make the same mistake again in the future.”

Mears was happy to take silver after battling back from injury to compete in the event.

He said: “I did not think I could compete since I had a back problem just before the World Cup. I was really happy to come back to the competition with Jack and we did five really good dives.”

Laugher quickly put his disappointment behind him to comfortably qualify for the semi-finals of the men’s 3m springboard competition.

He finished fourth in the preliminary round with a score of 470.85 to book his place in the semi-final, which takes place on Thursday 7 June.

Daniel Goodfellow finished 19th in the preliminary round after scoring 390.90 and failed to qualify. 

In the mixed synchronised 10m platform, Robyn Birch and Noah Williams had to settle for eighth place after scoring 267.22.