WUHAN, June 5 (Xinhua) -- A mistake in the last dive has buried the Rio 2016 champions Jack Laugher and Chris Mears' double-digit lead, giving the chance to home duo Cao Yuan and Xie Siyi to overturn the tide and win the men's 3m synchro springboard gold at the FINA Diving World Cup 2018 here on Tuesday.
Olympic winners Laugher and Mears were the last pair to come out of Tuesday's competition and they needed only a mediocre performance in their sixth dive to clinch the title.
"In fact I was very disappointed after our last dive, I knew we had little chance to win, because the British pair has led over 10 points from the previous five dives and if they performed normally in the last, they would win," Xie said after the match.
However, a dramatic moment came as Mears failed to make a complete dive and the British pair got only 70.68 points from the forward 4-1/2 somersault, the same for Cao and Xie in their last jump who collected 88.92 to wrap up the victory with a total score of 448.74. Laugher and Mears finished second with 440.64.
"We could have won, but it didn't happen. Compared with our performance in Rio Olympics, we were not so prepared today," Laugher said.
Mears said at the press briefing that he had got a back injury before coming to Wuhan. "The result was beyond my expectation. At least we finished five good dives today," he said.
Mexican divers Rommel Pacheco and Jahir Ocampo took the final spot on the podium with a total of 435.72. Enditem
