British diver Mears secures additional Olympic quota place

By Sportsbeat staff

CHRIS Mears secured an additional British place in the Olympic 3m springboard diving competition with a top 16 qualifying performance at the FINA World Cup in London.

DELIGHTED: Chris Mears, the diver who just three years ago was fighting for his life after a training dive went wrong, has secured an Olympic quota place at the FINA World Cup (Getty Images/British Olympic Association)

Jack Laugher, who had already secured an Olympic quota place with his eighth position at last year's World Championships, finished fifth while team-mate Mears also progressed to the semi-finals in 14th.

“It was absolutely incredible,” said Laugher, when asked his debut at the new £250 million Olympic aquatic centre. “The crowd were so loud – I’ve never heard anything like it.

“It was completely packed out as far as I could see so I was absolutely buzzing for my first dive and everything seemed to go pretty well from there."

 

Mears was also delighted with his performance - which should all but secure his Olympic selection, subject to official confirmation by the British Olympic Association.

Just three years ago the then 16-year old diver was given just a slim chance of survival when he suffered complications from a ruptured spleen when a practice dive went wrong while preparing for the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney.

His father Paul, who spent more than a month at his bedside before he was finally released from hospital, will also be involved at the Olympics - having recently been nominated as one of the BOA's torchbearers.

“To be honest I can’t remember much of it already,” said Mears.

“I was nervous but I think I used the crowd to my advantage. I wanted to get in there with a steady list and then I nailed my last dive which was great.

“We’ve got that second Olympic quota place now so I don’t need to worry about that and from that perspective it couldn’t have gone any better.”

 

Elsewhere, Monica Gladding finished tenth in the women's 10m platform final, which was won by China's Chen Ruolin, ahead of team-mate Yadan Hu and Italy's Noemi Batki.

But team-mate Stacie Powell missed the final by one place, ranking 15th in the semi-finals.

“It was quite an experience being in my first World Cup final,” said Gladding. “I was super pumped which was frustrating as I dropped two of my best dives.

“I am really happy though. If someone had said to me a year ago that I would have finished tenth in the final I would have taken it.

“There are lots of positives to take from it. I wanted to finish on a good note and I did that with one of my most consistent dives.”

© Sportsbeat 2012