Houlden and Harper deliver solid 1m displays

A strong morning prelims list had positioned Jordan Houlden as the number two seed entering the Men’s 1m Springboard medal contest, and he started his final by notching up as sequence of 60-plus point dives across the opening three rounds.

Landing a superb Reverse 2 1/2 Somersaults Tuck (305C) for 72.00 points with his fourth dive of the contest kept the Sheffield Performance Centre man in podium contention, then backed up by another solid effort in the fifth round put Houlden in fourth place with a gap of 5.15 points to make up on bronze.

Another 72.00-point dive in the final round – this time for a Forward 2 1/2 Somersaults 1 Twist Pike (5152B) - was so nearly enough to secure a piece of silverware, but Houlden’s closing score of 405.15 was agonisingly just 0.35 points shy of the world championships podium.

“I'm feeling good, of course it's a little bit unlucky on that last dive not to get them little points but that at the end of the day is diving - you've got to battle each other, and that's what keeps pushing and pushing you to do better,” said Houlden.

"It's definitely given me some confidence, I've got into the competition feeling now and I can take that into the 3m individual which is great for me."

Noah Penman meanwhile placed 17th out of 59 divers in the prelims on his maiden senior world championships appearance.

The Women’s 1m Springboard competition took place 24 hours earlier in the OCBC Aquatic Centre with Yasmin Harper placing eighth in the final, while Tilly Brown ranked 21st overall in the prelims on her world championships debut.

Improving her overall score by 0.1 from prelims to final, Harper’s dive of the competition came in closing out her qualifying performance with 58.50 points awarded for a delightful Forward 2 1/2 Somersaults Pike (105B) effort.

“I think I’m feeling good that I was in the world final, it’s always great to be in that position and see what you’ve got to give - I definitely think I had more in the tank there, but it’s a good warm up for 3m Synchro [with Scarlett Mew Jensen] in a couple of days’ time,” said Harper.

“The women’s 1m is such a tough event, you’ve got some of the girls in there really pushing some big scores and you can’t give anything away, so you have to put everything on the table and I just fell a bit short today.”

Stream live free-to-air coverage of the World Aquatics Championships 2025 taking place in Singapore at www.aquaticsgb.com/live.