Ripon diver Jack Laugher claims place at Tokyo Olympics

Laugher, who is from Ripon, teamed up with Dan Goodfellow in the 3m synchro, and despite the pair having only been working together for ten months, they finished second to secure Britain’s first medal at the World Championships in Gwangju.

While the pair’s individual quality was never in doubt – they both won Olympic medals in Rio in 2016 – the effectiveness of their partnership was far from guaranteed, with Laugher having spent the vast majority of his career teaming up with Chris Mears in the 3m event.

However, their final programme started well, with their opening two dives amassing 97.80 points and representing a marked improvement on their performance in the preliminaries.

Their third dive, an inward three-and-a-half somersault tuck, left them in second place at the halfway stage of the final, and when their fourth effort was equally successful, they found themselves at the top of the rankings with two dives to go.

A slight wobble with their penultimate effort saw them slip to third, but an excellent final dive – a front four-and-a-half somersault tuck – saw them claim the silver medal.

“It’s a case of job done,” said Laugher, who is based at British Diving’s high-performance centre in Leeds. “This year has been a bit ropey for both of us - we’ve had some good highs but real lows as well, so to do that here, qualify that Olympic spot and get a silver medal, it means the world to us.

“This is Dan’s first World Championships medal and my first World silver as well, so for both of us we’re really pleased.”

Goodfellow added: “I knew we were capable of doing it but actually putting a performance together is something we’re really proud of – it’s unbelievable really.

“We’ve had a lot of bad performances throughout the World Series and maybe without them we wouldn’t have achieved what we did. Qualifying a space for the Olympics is amazing.”