Britain’s Olympic diving team were celebrating their best ever Games as Jack Laugher and Anthony Harding picked up a bronze medal in a tight men’s 3m springboard synchronised dive that went to the wire.
With the individual events yet to come, Britain has now earned four medals in the aquatics centre with Laugher acknowledging the pressure on him after the early success, including a bronze for his girlfriend Lois Toulson, in the synchronised 10-metre platform.
“I would never have heard the end of it if I didn’t get one and she did,” said Laugher, 29, from Ripon. “This is Team GB’s best ever diving haul. We’ve done fantastically. Four medals from four synchro events is unreal.”
China’s Long Daoyi and Zongyuan Wang won gold, continuing Chinese dominance in the diving pool, and Juan Manuel Celaya and Osmar Olvera representing Mexico took silver but the medal positions were in doubt right up until the last dive.
Harding, 24, and Laugher, who was competing at his fourth Olympic Games and already has a gold, silver and bronze medal in his collection, said they were just delighted to be on the podium after falling to fifth at this year’s worlds and coming up in Paris against Long and Wang, who won the past two world titles together.
A decision had been made by the British pair to perform their most difficult dive in fifth rather than the usual sixth position in an attempt to take the pressure off Harding, who had struggled to execute it to his partner’s high standards.
“Me and Anthony decided that we wanted to finish a dive we felt most comfortable [with]”, Laugher said. “We always put our hardest dive last but if it felt like there was a lot of pressure on it. It’s usually ordinarily a good dive but over the past year or so Anthony’s had a struggle with it. And today like I say, I’m normally good [but] Anthony’s was better than mine. So I’m really, really proud of what he’s done and how he’s achieved that.”
Harding said he felt immense relief after performing well in the fifth dive which involves two-and-a-half somersaults and three twists from a forward position.
“It’s so difficult”, he said. “Me and my weights coach have worked so hard to get stronger. It’s Jack’s strongest dive so it’s kind of a no brainer, it has to be there. So for me, I’m just so happy to finally get that in when it mattered”.
Laugher added: “Tony actually nailed it. On a personal note for me and Lois, it’s just a wonderful achievement. I know how much it meant for her, and two medals between us is wonderful and there’s more events to go so who knows”.
Wang had not lost a major international synchro competition since 2019 but the Chinese team had appeared vulnerable at times. After the opening effort – a back dive pike – Laugher gave Harding a reassuring pat on the back with the British pair in fourth position, behind China, Italy and the US.
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Laugher and Harding then improved in their second effort and again in their next while the Chinese team appeared to have a small wobble, unusually dropping points when they performed the first of their more difficult dives.
It was, however, the Mexicans who were able to prosper, briefly topping the table after performing rather better than the British in the fifth dive that had been the cause of so much worry for Harding.
In the final round, the medals could have gone any way and after a strong performance in the last dive there was delight in the pool and in the stands, where fellow diver Tom Daley was hollering his support. Unfortunately, the Chinese and Mexicans both did enough to keep the British at bay in their final efforts.
Laugher, who linked up with Harding after splitting with his former partner Dan Goodfellow, with whom he finished a disappointing seventh in Tokyo, said the event had still given him hope of matching the Chinese in the future.
He said: “I think they showed a slight wobble. You know, we work on ourselves and it’s always about our individual performance over anybody else. We can’t control what anyone else is doing. Although I did know that they were potentially having a slight wobble and you know how close Mexico were. They are definitely gettable and I will work every day to try and catch them.”
Harding said he hoped to perform again at the next Olympics but joked that the bronze meant there would be no shame in an “early retirement”. “It’s just such a relief for me,” he added.