Improved performance from Toulson and Cheng but they miss out on medal

Lois Toulson and Eden Cheng missed out on a medal in the Women’s Platform Synchro despite an improved performance in the final.

The teenagers took sixth spot with a score of 289.14 in the FINA World Championships at the Nambu International Aquatics Centre in Gwangju, Korea – one place and 8.04 points better than their qualifying score.

Toulson, 19, and Cheng, 16, had started well with a score of 48.00 for a back dive in pike position but failed to follow that up in the second round.

They will have been disappointed with their reverse dive in pike position that scored only 43.20, which was the second lowest score of the round.

However, they bounced back well and produced their highest scoring dive in round three – a forward three-and-a-half somersaults in pike position that earned 69.30 points.

Chinese duo dominate

That left them sixth and although they did climb up to fifth spot after the fourth round, a brilliant last dive from the Russian duo of Ekaterina Beliaeva and Iuliia Timoshinina saw Toulson and Cheng drop back down.

They were 56.10 behind the dominant Chinese pair of Wei Lu and Jiaqi Zhang who scored 345.24 to win the gold medal.

Their last dive earned a huge 86.40 as they finished 32.52 ahead of the silver medallists, Malaysia’s Mun Lee Leong and Pandelela Pamg (312.72).

America’s Samantha Bromberg and Katrina Young won the bronze with a score of 304.86

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