Tom Daley insists there is much more to come from his partnership with Matty Lee after they clinched silver in the Men's 10m Synchro at the FINA Diving World Series in Montreal.
The pairing, who made their competitive debut together in February, found themselves in sixth place with two dives remaining after their third and fourth efforts were slightly below par.
But knowing they could still finish in the medals, the London-based duo executed a strong final dive - a Forward 4 ½ Somersaults Tuck (109C) – to bag 88.80 points and World Series silver.
And while Daley was delighted they were able to nail their last two dives to come away with a silver medal, he admitted there are plenty of improvements to make going forward.
“Overall we’re pretty happy with that result but performance wise there were still a lot of things we wanted to do better,” said Daley, who won Olympic bronze at Rio 2016.
“Our third and fourth round dives weren’t up to the standard we’d like to compete at and we were quite low down in the competition.
“But then when we got to the fifth round dive we knew we could still get back in there if we nailed it and so the last two dives took us from sixth to second, to come away with silver.”
Chinese pair Yang Hao and Lian Junjie took gold with 464.52, with the British pairing finishing second with 412.20, and Lee is already looking forward to their next competition together.
“I’m very happy with the silver – it’s our first international medal so that’s a big achievement for us both,” said Lee. “We’re off to Russia in two weeks where we’ll look to keep progressing.”
Also in action on the opening day in Canada were Eden Cheng and Lois Toulson, the young pairing performing extremely well to finish fourth against quality opposition.
Although short of a medal with a points tally of 291.36, the pair showed good form, especially with a high scoring Back 2 ½ Somersault 1 ½ Twist Pike (5253B).
Meanwhile, Kat Torrance and Grace Reid finished in eighth place in the Women’s 3m Synchro, saving their best dive until last as the dominant Chinese pairing of Tingmao Shi and Han Wang took gold.
Jack Laugher and Dan Goodfellow were also chasing more World Series silverware in the final event of the first day, the Men's 3m Synchro, where they had to settle for a sixth-place finish.
There will be more medal opportunities for three-time Olympian Daley, who will be back in action on Sunday for the individual and the Mixed 3m Synchro alongside Grace Reid.
Sportsbeat 2019