Houlden impressive in high quality springboard final

Aquatics GB Performance Centre Sheffield man Jordan Houlden had a look of enjoyment in his diving throughout the qualification rounds and secured his progression from the Men’s 3m Springboard semi-final with a statement of quality, landing 91.20 points for his Forward 4 1/2 Somersaults Tuck (109C).

Lining back up among the world’s best once again in the final only a matter of hours later, Houlden began to string together an impressive list, notching 81.60 points on an Inward 3 1/2 Somersaults Tuck (407C) to put him in the medal conversation.

The level of Mexico’s gold medallist, Olvera Ibarra, and both Chinese divers on the day ultimately never let slip, and though Holden knocked firmly on the door with two closing 90-plus point scoring dives – a brilliant Back 3 1/2 Somersaults Tuck (207C) and another clutch Forward 4 1/2 Somersaults Tuck (109C) – his impressive total of 492.10 ultimately placed him fourth in the world championship final.

“I felt great, there was a few dives in there that were a little iffy, but I think I put a solid performance together,” said Houlden on achieving his best-ever finish at a world championships.

“The standard in that was absolutely amazing. It’s good to see diving being performed up to this standard, it’s just getting harder and harder and you’ve got to just keep bringing your A-game really.

“I didn’t really have much expectations other than to come out here and enjoy myself and I did that”

Having achieved Men’s 3m Synchro bronze with Anthony Harding earlier in the week, Jack Laugher was unfortunately eliminated at the preliminaries stage of the individual event after a dropped dive in round two of qualifying left him adrift of the required points as he placed 26th overall.

Maisie Bond meanwhile continued her development on the world stage with a promising performance in the Women’s 10m Platform.

The Sheffield Performance Centre diver was returning to competition after a 5th place finish in the synchro with Lois Toulson, and made light work of navigating the individual preliminaries to move through to the semi-final seeded seventh.

During the proceeding semi-final, Bond landed a superb Front 3 ½ Somersault Pike (107B) for 66.00 points in the third round as a clear demonstration of her talent, however she finished just shy of a place in the final due to a misplaced final dive to place 13th overall.

Elsewhere the Women’s 3m Springboard competition got underway on Friday 1st August with Grace Reid securing 11th in the preliminaries to move forward to the semi-final (8am BST, Saturday 2nd August), while teammate Amy Rollinson finished 33rd in her maiden individual event at a world championships.

Alongside the conclusion of the Women’s 3m Springboard, Robbie Lee and Euan McCabe begin their campaign in the Men’s 10m Platform on the morning of Saturday 2nd August.

Stream live free-to-air coverage of the World Aquatics Championships 2025 taking place in Singapore at www.aquaticsgb.com/live. Full results and scheduling can be found on the World Aquatics website.