OLYMPICS LONDON 2012: Mears springs into 3m diving semi-finals

By Sean-Paul Doran, Sportsbeat, London 2012

GREAT Britain’s Chris Mears sneaked into the London 2012 3m springboard diving semi-finals – but rising youngster Jack Laugher failed to join him after a below-par performance.

ONE IN ONE OUT: Chris Mears , competing here in the synchro event last week, sealed his place in the 3m springboard London 2012 semi-finals

Mears took the 18th and final qualifying spot for Tuesday's semi-finals with a score of 436.05, just ahead of Malaysia's Qiang Huang and Italy's Michele Benedetti.

But 17-year-old Laugher posted a disappointing 330, almost 140 below his international best, after a failed final dive didn’t earn a score and saw him finish 27th from a field of 29.

Russia's Ilya Zakharov notched an impressive score of 507.65 to take his place at the top of the qualifying leaderboard, just under seven points ahead of China’s He Chong in second.

Germany’s Stephen Feck produced the talking point of the night as an awkward dive saw him land painfully on his back and set him up to finish bottom of the standings.

"I don't have any large expectations. I just want to go out there, and if I get a similar score as I did here, I'll be really chuffed," said Mears.

"If I get more, I'll be even more chuffed. And if I get less, I've never dived in the semifinal of an Olympic Games, so that'll be an experience in itself.

"I had a really good event. I was consistent throughout all six rounds, which is something that's really hard to do at this sort of level, and I'm really happy with my performance. 436 is a PB for me at a prelim and an international best."

© Sportsbeat 2012