The Sports Lowdown For All Your News and Opinions
Team GB divers Tonia Couch and Lois Toulson failed to medal in the Women’s 10m Synchronised diving after finishing 5th behind China, Malaysia, Canada and North Korea.
Tom Daley and Daniel Goodfellow won bronze in the corresponding men’s event on Monday but it wasn’t to be for 27-year-old Couch and 16-year-old Toulson.
The Great Britain duo came together only last year following chronic shin injury problems to Couch’s long-term partner Sarah Barrow. As a result they didn’t know how they would do against more experience pairings.
The 16-year-old Toulson, who’s competing in her first ever Olympic Games and wasn’t overawed by the occasion, said: “It was one of the best competitions I have done. I really enjoyed it and definitely got a lot of experience and we ended up getting a personal best.”
The green colour of the water was a mystery to everyone and became a distraction to the main event but the divers said it wasn’t a problem for them.
Tonia Couch, the more experience of the two by ten years, said to BBC Sport: “We noticed it in the warm-up and then by the competition it was even more green, but if anything it actually made it a bit easier to spot where the water was, so it didn’t make a difference.
The first of their five dives was a back dive, which they executed well and allowed them to get up and running in the competition. They scored 50.40, which meant they were placed nicely in 4th position after the first round.
After the second round was completed it was already apparent that the Chinese pair of Ruolin Chen and Huixia Liu were going to be the gold medal winners, so the rest of the field including the Great Britain pair were competing for silver and bronze.
With the final being very close the Great Britain pair had to score better than Canada with their last dive to claim the bronze medal but they fell under the pressure and nerves scoring 63.36 with Canada taking the bronze with a score of 80.64. Ultimately finishing in 5th 16.74 points from the bronze.
Even though the pool was green, the country that was going to win was clear from the outset with the world champions, China, winning gold with a score of 354.00, 10.34 points ahead of Malaysia’s Hoong Jun Cheoung and Rinong Pandelela Pamg, who claimed silver, with the Canada pair of Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion winning bronze a further eight points back.
