Olympic champions Jack Laugher and Chris Mears have opened their FINA Diving World Series in scintillating style by taking silver in the Men’s 3m Synchro in Beijing.
The Rio 2016 Olympic gold medallists looked in stellar touch to take their first medal of 2017, with their final score of 427.98 across six dives enough for them to take runner-up spot in a strong international field on Friday.
That score was largely down to an excellent penultimate round in the final, orchestrating a Forward 2 ½ Somersaults 3 Twists to score 88.92 points and perfectly seal their second-place finish.
That effort was bettered only by Cao Yuan and Xie Siyi of China, while Russia finished in third position – more than eight points behind the British pair.
But Laugher and Mears were not the only British duo in action on this, the first of three days of competition in Beijing.
Tom Daley – returning to the location of his first Olympic Games when just 14 – and Daniel Goodfellow came fourth in the 10m Synchro earlier in the day, backing up their Rio bronze medal with a score of 409.59.
Women’s 10m Synchro pairing of Lois Toulson and Tonia Couch finished with a score of294.72 and ranked fifth, while the new women’s 3m Synchro pairing of Grace Reid and Katherine Torrance also finished fifth with a score of275.88.
Laugher is back on the board as early as tomorrow, competing in the Men’s 3m Springboard, while Reid and Torrance compete in opposing semi-finals in the women’s equivalent event. Sportsbeat 2017