Laugher finishes fifth in 3m final

20 Jul 2017

Jack Laugher finished in fifth place in the 3m Springboard final on the seventh day of action at the World Championships in Budapest.

In what proved to be one of the closest finals of the competition, Laugher was within the top five throughout the final. 

Laugher had a shaky start to the final but picked up points with an excellent Reverse 3 1/2 Somersaults tucked. 

His best dive was his Front 2 1/2 Somersaults 3 Twists piked which scored 93.60 points. He finished with a score of 500.65. 

"It was dreadful from start to finish, my opener was bad and so was my third dive but there were still some ok dives. It's not good enough really," Laugher said. 

"I don't know what's gone wrong, coming into these championships I felt good, I felt prepared and I felt injury free, everything was in the right place. We've been working really hard and things have been good, it just didn't fall into place unfortunately today.

"Today I felt nervy, I felt stressed before the competition and that obviously showed."

World Championships debutant Ross Haslam showed his promise throughout the six dives as he finished in 11th place overall. 

He saved his best for last as he scored 86.70 points for his Front 2 1/2 Somersaults 2 Twists piked. His overall score was 452.90. 

"It was awesome to be part of my first World final," Haslam said. "What a competition to be part of and I couldn't be happier with how I did. I've learnt a lot after competing alongside divers of this calibre and I can't wait for next year."

Grace Reid excelled in the semi-final to reach her first World Championship final after finishing in eighth place. 

Reid enjoyed a steady prelim to reach the semi-final in 14th place, she later improved her score and position in the semi-final.

Her highest score in the semi-final came in the second round when she scored 65.10 for her Front 3 1/2 Somersaults tucked. Her overall score was 309.60. 

"Really really pleased with that, it's an improvement from this morning," Reid said. "There are still a few more little mistakes that I'm hoping to correct in the final. So yeah really thrilled to be through.

"I'm probably more nervous for this than I was the Olympics, it's such a big stage. I've just taken the experience I had last year and brought it into this competition."