Rio Olympics 2016: Tom Daley and Dan Goodfellow secure bronze in 10m synchro diving
TOM DALEY and Dan Goodfellow made a splash by clinching a brilliant bronze for Britain in the 10m synchro diving final.
Daley’s partner Dustin Lance Black watched on from the Rio stands as his man scooped a second-ever Olympic medal – with a third in prospect when he returns to dive on his own in ten days time.
The British pair and the rest of the field were always expected to be fighting it out for silver and bronze – and came nowhere near to Chinese pair Chen Aisen and Lin Yue who have not been beaten in 18 months.
And Daley, 22, and Goodfellow, 19, fought back from a slightly shaky start to grab a bronze – ahead of rivals Germany – under intense pressure with the last dive of the competition.
And Daley revealed that he was so delighted to get one over the Germans to seal a medal that he just could not resist dragging partner Goodfellow back into the water in celebration.
Daley said: “We’re over the moon. I kind of pounced on Dan at the end and I didn’t realise we were going backwards until we were in the water.
“Going into the last round is always intense pressure in any competition – but when it’s the Olympic Games you can multiply that by a million.
“It’s windy, it’s a little bit cold, and going into the last dive… we were two points ahead of the Germans in the European Championships earlier in May in London.
“It was the same situation and they took us out and won a gold medal, whereas this time we wanted to make sure we got the Germans back and won the gold medal.
“The last place you want to be on the start list is number eight behind following the Chinese.
“We were dealt a bit of a rough hand there but we stepped up to the mark and stayed in the moment, focused on what we needed to do and didn’t get ahead of ourselves.”
Goodfellow added: “I felt that really helped and we stayed in the moment and ended up with a medal – I can’t believe it!
“We kept our nerve today when other people didn’t.”
The Brits were third at the midway point behind USA divers David Boudia and Steele Johnson as well as the Chinese duo.
Their fourth dive looked brilliant – but Goodfellow could not keep his splash to a minimum when he hit the water.
With USA pulling further clear, GB pair slipped to fifth but remained in a four-way fight for bronze with Germany, Ukraine and Mexico.
Ukraine then dropped out of the race after a disastrous fifth dive – before an ASTONISHING Chinese effort effectively wrapped up the win with the judges scoring it 106.56.
Daley and Goodfellow – diving eighth of the eight pairs – then did the business with a 92.13 to lift them into third again, with Germany just a couple of points behind them.
Germany and Mexico piled on the pressure with their sixth and final dives, but the Brits nailed their last attempt to steel bronze with a 89.64 score – and 444.45 overall – after an agonising wait to see if the judges scores put them ahead of the Germans.
Daley will now go in search of another medal in the individual 10m platform – in the pair of swimmers designed by Stella McCartney that were redesigned to stop him ‘popping out.’
The diving star has previously told The Sun exclusively that it is a case of “when” and not “if” he becomes a dad following the Games.
He emerged from the 2012 London Games with crippling OCD, after a crucial dive went wrong, wrecking his dreams of winning gold.
The star was already reeling from his father’s death the previous year and sunk so low he contemplated quitting the sport.