Dan Goodfellow and Jack Laugher believe they have sent a message to their rivals after the new partnership clinched 3m springboard bronze in their first international competition together.
The GB duo completed the podium at the first leg of the 2019 FINA Diving World Series in Japan with 420.51 points as China’s Siyi Xie and Yuan Cao claimed gold with 446.82 points.
Olympic champion Laugher was joined on the springboard by Goodfellow – an Olympic bronze medallist in the platform event - for the first time at the Sagamihara Green Pool.
But despite having only worked together for the last six months, they demonstrated their potential with a medal on the world stage at their first attempt.
And Goodfellow said: “I think it was a really good competition considering it was our first international, our first World Series and my first 3m springboard competition in the synchro.
“I think we just wanted to put a good synchro performance as we highlighted some things at Nationals that we weren’t happy with and we just wanted to do some good, consistent hurdle steps, but the individual dives turned out to be really good as well.
“It’s great to go out to the World Series and in the first couple of rounds get a medal under your belt – it boosts your confidence, especially as a new pairing, and hopefully other countries have seen our performance and seen that we’re contenders for the medals.”
The pairing occupied third position at the halfway mark, before moving up to second with scores of 82.95 and 79.80, producing one of the hardest dives in the sport for the former.
An accomplished back 3½ somersault tuck scored a further 78.84 points, but Mexico’s Rommel Pacheco and Jahir Ocampo managed to edge them out of silver with a total score of 427.86.
Laugher added: “After Nationals I just wanted to come out here and put a good synchronised performance together and we’ve really shown that we have massive potential together.
“420 is a great score and I’m really happy – I thought we would be decent, but not amazing, but it was really good and we’re really happy with it.”
The first day of action on the outskirts of Tokyo’s capital also saw another new partnership in Tom Daley and Matty Lee, who had to settle for fourth place in the men’s 10m synchro.
Two-time Olympic bronze medallist Daley and Lee were right in the mix for a medal before being knocked out of the podium places by Australia’s Declan Stacey and Domonic Bedggood as favourites Chen Aisen and Cao Yuan of China took gold.
“I’m happy with that for our first international together,” said Lee. “Our first four dives were good, so it gives us something to work on for Beijing next week.”
Grace Reid and Kat Torrance also just missed out on the medals in the women’s 3m synchro, finishing in fourth position with a total of 281.67 behind China, Canada and Australia.
Elsewhere, in the women’s 10m synchro, European champions Eden Cheng and Lois Toulson finished in sixth with a total of 282.78 as they pitted themselves against the world’s best for the first time.
The action resumes on Saturday when Laugher will return in the men’s 3m springboard, while Lee and Toulson will combine in the mixed 10m synchro final.