Jack Laugher and Anthony Harding claim fantastic fourth diving medal

Team GB made it four Olympic medals from as many diving finals as Jack Laugher and Anthony Harding claimed bronze in the Men’s Synchronised 3m Springboard.

The duo leapt into each other’s arms after guaranteeing themselves a medal with their final dive and, in the process, secured Team GB’s best start to an Olympic diving competition with the individual events yet to come.

Their success followed hard on the heels of Tom Daley and Noah Williams taking silver in the Men’s Synchro 10m Platform, with bronzes for Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen in the Women’s Synchro 3m Springboard and Lois Toulson and Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix in the Women’s Synchro 10m Platform.

Harding and Laugher pushed the winners China and silver medallists Mexico all the way, finishing less than eight points off top spot with a total of 438.15 from their six dives.

China maintained their clean sweep of diving medals, although Daoyi Long and Zongyuan Wang were not as dominant as their teammates, whilst the Mexican duo of Juan Celaya and Osmar Olvera pipped the British duo to silver with a superbly executed final dive.

Laugher has now medalled in three successive Games, whilst Harding marked his Olympic debut in style.

The pair only joined forces in late 2021 but can add the Olympic bronze to the European, Commonwealth and world medals they have won in their time together.

Pulled it out the bag

For Harding, in particular, the podium place was extra special as he admitted that his confidence had taken a dent ahead of Paris 2024.

Harding said: “I came into this not knowing how it would play out. Over the last year my confidence has been knocked through competitions in Doha and other competitions and my triple out has been struggling but I somehow managed to find something on that triple out and get it in.

“Ahead of the last dive I felt so good and I’m happy we did a big front at the end. It wasn’t to be to beat China or Mexico but I’m so happy to get a bronze.

“I always believed I could make it to the Olympics. It has been very difficult – the GB team is so strong and to get on the team is so hard.

“So, to just be on the team and just be an Olympian is the thing I’ve been dreaming of and to walk away with a medal with Jack is amazing.”

Laugher added: “It’s absolutely fantastic – we’ve had a really good day. It was a shaky start for me as I was really nervous for the first two dives but I pulled it out of the bag with my hard dives.

“I’m just so proud of what me and Anthony have done. We’ve worked really hard and like Anthony said, we’ve had some real ups this year and some major downs as well.”