JACK LAUGHER claimed a gold and silver medal at the European Diving Championships to reinforce his status as a leading contender ahead of this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio.

The Ripon diver won a silver in the 3m individual springboard event, before returning to the pool over the weekend with partner Chris Mears to win gold in the 3m synchro.

The success was the pair’s first synchro title win of the year, and confirmed Laugher’s wellbeing after a winter that was disrupted by an injury to his foot.

Diving with Mears, his partner as the duo won a bronze medal at last year’s World Championships, Laugher took the lead after the second dive of the final.

The pair pulled further ahead in the next two rounds, and received the loudest cheer of the night at the London Aquatic Centre as they secured 94.77 points for their new signature dive, a front two-and-a-half somersaults with three twists picked.

The British duo eventually claimed the gold medal with a score of 456.81, a total that left them more than 11 points clear of the Russian runners-up, Ilia Zakharov and Oleksandr Gorshkovozov.

“This is massive for us, it’s been great,” said Laugher, who trains with the City of Leeds club. “It’s the first time we’ve pulled off our triple – the fifth dive where we scored over 94 – which was sensational.

“It’s been a long time coming this – our synchro has been on form. It took a little while to get going this year, but we’re definitely there now.

“The silver (in the individual event) gave me the hunger and the fire I needed to come out and get that gold. And to do it with my best mate is incredible.

“There’s still a long way to go until the Olympics – first we’ve got the National Championships in June, then the Rio qualifying event, and then it’ll be back into heavy training.”

Mears added: “We knew off the back of the World Series what we needed to work on, and I think we’ve done that really well.

“We’ve not had that much preparation coming into this, but it’s great to just win. We’re really, really happy to have done that.”