Toulson and Spendolini-Sirieix secure top ten finishes into semi-finals

The preliminaries of the Women’s 10m Platform saw Lois Toulson and Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix comfortably securing their places in the semi-finals with both divers achieving top-ten finishes.

30 women contested the prelims of this event with the top 18 divers progressing to the semi-finals. Toulson finished in seventh position while Spendolini-Sirieix finished in tenth.

Toulson’s opening dive, a forward 3 1/2 somersaults with pike, was strong and earned her 63.00 points and slotted her into 11th place overall after round one.

Spendolini-Sirieix scored slightly lower for the same dive (58.50 points), leaving her with some work to do to challenge for a top 18 spot.

She did just that with an impressive second dive (inward 3 1/2 somersaults with tuck) which earned her a staggering 68.80 points, catapulting her into 9th place overall.

Her teammate Toulson slipped down the ranks slightly with 57.40, though both GB divers were sitting comfortably in the top 18 after two rounds of diving and three to go.

Toulson’s strongest dive came in the final round when she scored 73.60 points for her back 2 1/2 somersaults 1 1/2 twists, a dive of 3.2 difficulty.

Likewise, a consistent performance from Sirieix saw her collecting 62.40 and 59.20 points for her final two dives.

314.00 points for Toulson and 307.70 for Spendolini-Sirieix sees both women on track for a strong semi-finals performance. They will need to finish in the top 12 in order to qualify for the final.

‘Happy and confident’

Speaking after her performances, Toulson said: “I’m really happy. Obviously made it through to the semi-final which was my first goal. It was quite hard because I haven’t done a long prelim like that for about two years now. So, it was hard work.

“The length between dives gives you quite a while to just sit and think things through and sometimes you think too much but I’m happy with how everything went.

“It has definitely boosted my confidence a bit. I know I can do all my dives like the last one but obviously, it’s just when you’re up there trying to stay strong and confident which I struggle with sometimes. I do know I can do it so hopefully tomorrow I can show some more.”

When asked what the next 16 hours will look like for her ahead of the semi-finals, she said:

“I’m going to go back to the village, have some food and go straight to bed. I think we’re up quite early to get in some training before the competition so it’s going to be a quick turnaround.”

She continued, saying that she is ‘thankful’ to be at her second Olympics and plans to ‘stay focused’ while in Tokyo.

“I’m just going to try and stay focused. It’s been really good, we’re all just really happy and thankful to be here because obviously it’s been a really challenging, well over a year now, and just knowing that we’ve got this behind us is something to be proud of in itself.

“Diving is such a mental sport as well as physical it’s definitely taken its toll but knowing I can do it has definitely built my confidence now.”