Laugher and Harding win BRONZE in males’s 3m springboard closing

For just a few moments, Jack Laugher took a long look at the Chinese divers and saw something less than invincibility in their eyes.

China had already collected golds in all three synchronised diving events here and were powering off towards a fourth when there a trace of vulnerability – a very slight bit of splashiness in the third of Daoyi Long and Zongyuan Wang’s six dives – revealed itself. ‘I think they showed a slight wobble. I did notice that they were having a slight off day,’ Laugher said.

They ‘recovered’ to pull out a monumental last dive and take gold but it wasn’t the usual overwhelming China superiority and Laugher reflected, after he and Anthony Harding had taken bronze in the synchronised three-metre platform, that they can be reeled in. ‘We are close. They are gettable and we keep trying every single day,’ he said.

At the Olympic swimming arena, an Australian swimming coach has questioned the legitimacy of Chinese star swimmer Pan Zhale, who broke his own world record by seconds. Laugher was putting Chinese dominance down to the vastly greater resources the nation commits to diving, one of its national sports. ‘They have unbelievable training venues that we could only dream of in the UK,’ he said.

The 29-year-old’s own decision to top up his £28,000 annual income by creating Onlyfans videos of himself points to what a different world it is for the British. But the success of their divers here – with four medals for the first time at an Olympics with the solo events yet to come – reveals the sport’s Leeds performance centre is doing plenty right.

Anthony Harding (left) and Jack Laugher (right) claimed team GB’s 22nd medal at the Games

The duo claimed a bronze medal after finishing the men’s 3m springboard final on a score of 438.15

There was a double form of pressure for Laugher, whose breezy confidence after collecting a fourth medal across three Olympics suggested that he is none the worse for the story of his Onlyfans output, reported on these pages last week, being picked up around the world.

He had the performance of his girlfriend Lois Toulson, a bronze medallist in Thursday’s synchronised 10-metre platform, to live up to. ‘I’d never hear the end of it if I didn’t get one and she did,’ he said. And he and Harding were also being asked to maintain Team GB’s record of a medal in every event.

It had been a nerve-shredding year for the pair. Their most difficult dive, which sends them through two and a half somersaults and three twists, had been flunked at the world championships in Doha, where it brought them just 63 points and left them finishing fifth. It is Laugher’s trademark dive, which won him gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics, but Harding has been less comfortable with it. 

‘Over the last year or so Anthony’s had a struggle with it,’ said Laugher, very much the senior member of the team.

The pair changed their usual order of six dives on Friday/yesterday, performing this difficult one fifth to get it out of the way earlier for Hudson and finish with a more comfortable one. By the time they approached it, the Mexicans had staked their claim with an immense fourth dive which briefly took them to the gold medal position and pushed the British further back.

But Laugher and Harding delivered, scoring 85 points with the dive, to take the contest for gold to the last jump, with a three-way fight between the British, Chinese and Mexicans still on. They saved the best for last – a performance of brilliant synchronicity which scored them 94.62 and made silver a possibility. Mexico, performing the audacious Laugher-inspired dive, delivered something even better to edge them back out of silver.

China’s Zongyuan Wang and Daoyi Long (middle left and right) won the gold, while Mexican partnership of Juan Manuel Celaya Hernandez and Osmar Olvera Ibarra (left) won the silver

The relief was written all over the face of the less self-confident Harding, who was clearly desperate to play his part in ensuring no repeat of those problems in Doha. Watching Australian diver Annabelle Smith’s disastrous dive in the 3m platform cost medal last Saturday had clearly been a chastening experience for him.

‘Seeing the Australian diver and knowing that anything can happen,’ he said. ‘You could be on the corner of the board, go off and then that’s it. It was just relief and excitement for me.’

Next come the singles events. The Chinese are hot favourites for gold and silver in all six.