Tokyo Olympics: Dan Goodfellow and Jack Laugher have tough day in 3m springboard synchro diving final

By James Toney

Dan Goodfellow has no regrets after his Olympic campaign failed to ignite in Tokyo.

Goodfellow was partnering Jack Laugher, who was seeking to defend the 3m synchro title he won with Chris Mears five years ago in Rio.

But they were unable to get going, and had to settle for seventh place as China won gold, the USA took silver and Germany claimed bronze.

At the test event in Tokyo earlier this year, the British duo set a 440.94 personal best that would have been enough for bronze here.

But Goodfellow and Laugher struggled throughout, their performance more reminiscent of their show at the recent European Championships.

“Springboard is a bit of bitch sometimes and it can go south very quickly. It was a tough day," admitted Laugher.

“We've competed two other times this year, we had a brilliant event here and a real stinker at the European Championships, this is another one unfortunately

“We've worked really hard but people at home just see this, rather than the hard work we've put in.

“Usually I'd be quite sad but I know how hard we've worked, I just apologise to everyone at home that we didn't get the result we wanted.

“Our training has been really good, I feel it didn't reflect what we've been training like. It's really hard to explain how nerve-wracking competing at the Olympic Games is and it's a big ask for us to get medals at our first Olympics together.

“We're really proud of what we've achieved, this is just a bad day and everyone has them.

“The errors were made were because we had too much adrenaline, it's not necessarily a bad thing. It wasn't a great competition in terms of scores, that shows how difficult it has been for us all in the last 18 months.”

Meldreth-based Goodfellow switched to the springboard after previously winning the 10m synchro bronze in Rio with Tom Daley.

And while Daley leaves Tokyo with Olympic gold, alongside new partner Matty Lee, Goodfellow is left to ponder the missed opportunity.

However, he believes the switch of focus will only prolong his career, especially after the injuries that plagued his build-up to the last Games.

“It was absolutely the right thing to do, I'm enjoying my springboard diving and coming into training every day without worrying about getting injured,” he said.

“We've had some very good results so it's 100 per cent the right decision.

“We were both a bit nervous but we also felt really good and we've been training well. We didn't have a good Europeans but we still felt very positive.

“In springboard diving the margin for error is so small and with dives this difficult you can easily make mistakes.”

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