Matty Lee and Tom Daley took their flourishing synchro partnership to the next level in Montreal as they took silver in the Men’s 10m Synchro at the third leg of the FINA Diving World Series.
After a couple of steady compulsory dives, the pair were slightly below par on dives three and four, slipping to sixth with two dives remaining. Knowing they could still get amongst the medals the London based pair up their game, executing a couple of great dives to haul themselves up onto the podium.
Round five saw the pair produce an 83.64 Reverse 3 ½ Somersault Tuck (307C) before acing their final dive, a Forward 4 ½ Somersaults Tuck (109C) to bag 88.80 points and a World Series silver.
Post-competition Lee said:
“I’m very happy with the silver – it’s our first international medal so that’s a big achievement for us both.”
Daley added:
“Overall we’re pretty happy with that result but performance wise there were still a lot of things we wanted to do better. Our third and fourth round dives weren’t up to the standard we’d like to compete at and we were quite low down in the competition. But then when we got to the fifth round dive we knew we could still get back in there if we nailed it and so the last two dives took us from sixth to second, to come away with silver.
Commenting on what’s to come, Matty continued:
“I’ve got the Mixed Synchro with Lois tomorrow and then individual on Sunday so I’m looking forward to that and getting more experience with my new dives, against the best in the world. Then we’re off to Russia in two weeks where we’ll look to keep progressing. Then it’s off to London!”
Daley is back in action on Sunday for the individual and the Mixed 3m Synchro alongside Grace Reid.
Also in action on the opening day in Canada were Eden Cheng and Lois Toulson, the young pairing performing extremely well to finish fourth against quality opposition. Although short of a medal with a points tally of 291.36, the pair showed good form, especially with a high scoring Back 2 ½ Somersault 1 ½ Twist Pike (5253B).
In the Women’s 3m Synchro it was an eighth place finish for Kat Torrance and Grace Reid, saving their best dive until last with a 63.90 Back 2 ½ Pike in a competition won by the dominant Chinese pair of Tingmao Shi and Han Wang.
The Men's 3m Synchro was the final event of the first day, Jack Laugher and Dan Goodfellow chasing more World Series silverware. It wasn't to be there day though, as they weren't quite able nail their signature dives, ultimately having to settle for a sixth place finish.
Full results of all the action can be found here
Tickets for the final leg of the FINA Diving World Series in London can be purchased here