Tom Daley struck gold in the diving with partner Matty Lee at his fourth Olympic Games in a thrilling finale.
In a pool just metres away from where Adam Peaty had won Britain’s first gold of the Games earlier in the day, Daley and Lee added a second barely a few hours later in a nailbiting 10metre synchronised platform diving competition.
It was thirteen years ago that the teenage Daley had first graced the Games in Beijing and medals followed in the individual competition at both London 2012 and Rio.
But the elder statesman of British diving - still only 27 years old - struck gold at his fourth attempt after a mistake by Chinese pair Cao Yuan and Chen Aisen turned the competition on its head.
The London-based pair had the best of the rest for the duration of the competition. They were just 1.2 points behind the Chinese after round one, a deficit which was extended to three further points after round two.
They were scored perhaps harshly for dive three, with Lee slightly overextended entering the water, allowing China to stretch out their advantage to 15 points.
The British pair nailed their most complex dive of the competition – 3.6 in difficulty – in the fourth round go put pressure on their Chinese rivals. And the competition flipped as the Chinese had an awful fourth round, scoring as low as 5.5 out of 10 with some of the judges, the pair out of sync and causing a splash on their entry into the water.
It left just over a point separating the top two pairings going into the final round, Daley and Lee saving their hardest dive for their finale much to the delight of a strong Team GB support in the stands, which they nailed as did the Chinese just after them.
It led to an anxious wait as the scores were collated, Daley and Lee winning by just 1.23 points with a winning tally of 471.81.
