There was disappointment for Meldreth diver Daniel Goodfellow and partner Jack Laugher after the pair missed out on a medal in the synchronized 3m springboard with a seventh-placed finish at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics this morning.
Goodfellow, who attended Melbourn Village College from 2008 to 2013, went into the event hoping to add to the bronze he won alongside Tom Daley four years ago in Rio, and he and Laugher were among the medal favourites after taking gold at the Diving World Cup earlier this year.
The duo got off to a poor start, scoring 47.40 on their first dive before improving with 51.00 in their second, but it left them rooted to the bottom of the leaderboard in 8th place.
Any hopes of a medal looked to have slipped away at the halfway point of the competition, with loose entry from the pair and over rotation from Goodfellow seeing them score 63.24 - the lowest third dive score of any team.
67.20 and 62.70 in dives four and five left them bottom with just one dive to go and the with no hope of winning a medal, but they showed what they were capable of in the sixth and final effort, scoring an impressive 91.26 to finish strongly.
“We're desperately disappointed for the boys today but that's a little inkling of what the boys are capable of. They finish strongly and confidently,” said former Olympic diving silver medallist Leon Taylor.
“It’s a huge score, but too little too late for them today.”
The gold medal was won by China’s Wang Zongyuan & Xie Siyi, with their dominant performance capped off with a 99.18 in their sixth dive to leave with a final score of 467.82.
USA pair Andrew Capobianco and Michael Hixon took the silver, with Germany’s Patrick Hausding and Lars Rudiger winning bronze.
Despite the disappointment of finishing seventh, Meldreth residents expressed their pride at seeing Goodfellow represent Team GB.
One Facebook user posted: “You're already winners just for representing your country.”
Others echoed the sentiment, with more taking to social media to wish Dan and Jack luck before their dives, with another saying: “Enjoy, you deserve it.”
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