Sarah Barrow and Tonia Couch underlined their international class with a sixth place finish in the 10m Synchro at the Kazan 2015 World Championships.
The Commonwealth silver medallists stepped up on their 302.52 effort from the prelim to score 308.40 in the final, missing out on the podium by just 16.86 points as China (359.52) took gold ahead of Canada (339.99) and North Korea (325.26).
The Brits have now finished in the top six at the past three World Championships, with another fifth place finish at the London 2012 Olympic Games in between.
But having surpassed North Korea’s medal-winning total at previous competitions, including on this year’s World Series and at last year’s World Cup, Couch admitted it was frustrating to have missed out on a first World Championship podium finish.
“It’s disappointing for that to happen today because it was just a couple of silly mistakes that happened,” said Couch, who is competing at her sixth World Championships in Russia.
“We both could have dived well today and we just didn’t.
“But you’ve got to look at the positives – we had a good first two dives which we’ve really worked hard on.”
Barrow and Couch gave themselves a solid platform to build on, scoring 102.60 for their opening two required dives to sit fourth and within touching distance of the podium.
But after scores of 65.28 and 66.60 for their inward 3 ½ with tuck and forward 3 ½ piked respectively, the Brits had conceded too much ground to the field.
And despite finishing with their best score of the round – a 73.29 for their back 2 ½ somersaults, 1 ½ twists – Barrow insisted there was room for improvement in all three of their optional dives.
“I am a little bit gutted because I know I can dive a little bit better,” said Barrow. “Even the last dive should have been more upright.
“But top six means that we qualify for the World Series and proves we deserve to be competing at that level.
“We’ve had a bit of a hard few weeks because I’ve had stress fractures in both my shins. They’ve been so sore and it’s been hard to train but I’ve tried as hard as I can.”
Both Barrow and Couch will come into Friday’s 10m Platform event off the back of career-best performances in 2014 with Barrow having lifted European gold and Couch finishing fourth in the World Cup.