Tom Daley and Noah Williams claimed silver in style in the 10m synchronised diving (Picture: Getty Images)
Team GB’s Tom Daley and Noah Williams put in a brilliant performance in the men’s synchronised 10m platform diving on Monday morning in Paris, claiming a silver medal for their efforts and paying emotional tributes after the success.
30-year-old Daley claims his fifth Olympic medal, and a first silver, while it is a first for 24-year-old Williams in his second trip to the Games, with huge support from the vocal crowd in Paris.
It was a great effort from the Brits, but the gold medal went to the superb Chinese team of Junjie Lian and Hao Jang, the reigning world champions, who put in a dominant display.
There were emotional scenes after the medal ceremony as Daley dedicated the triumph to his children, while Williams held back tears as he paid tribute to his former coach, David Jenkins, who died after the Tokyo Games.
‘It’s just so special,’ said Daley. ‘This time last year deciding to come back, never mind not knowing if I would make the synchro team. Doing it in front of my son who asked me to come back is so special I now have one of every colour. I’ve completed the set.’
Williams said: ‘It means a lot to me, my coach passed away after Tokyo. I don’t want to talk too much because I’ll cry.’
As Williams battled through tears, Daley, who has also lost his father, added: ‘I’ve never seen Noah cry in my whole life, I know how much today mean’s him and to Dave, Dave has been such a key part in Noah’s diving success and career. It’s very sad Dave is not here, but I know Dave and my dad would both be so proud to see us here today.’
Daley came out of retirement for Paris, but would not rule out returning in four years time for another crack at the Olympics in LA.
‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘We’ll enjoy today and see what the future holds. Right now, I’ll just go and enjoy time with my little ones.’
While there were fantastic dives from the likes of Canada, Mexico, Ukraine and Australia, it was China who were in command throughout in the hunt for gold and the rest were battling out for the other two medals.
Team GB grabbed the silver and it was a tense scrap for bronze, which was eventually won by the Canadian team as Mexico narrowly missed out.
Junjie Lian and Hao Yang were unstoppable at the Aquatics Centre (Picture: Getty Images)
Team GB icon Daley is competing at his fifth Games, first bursting into the limelight way back in 2008 in Beijing.
He won a bronze at London 2012 in the 10m, bronze again in Rio 2016 in the 10m synchro, then claimed gold in the synchro and bronze again in the individual at Tokyo 2021.
Williams is enjoying his first taste of Olympic glory, having dived in Tokyo, but not coming close to a medal in the individual 10m.
The fabulous effort in the pool takes Team GB’s medal tally to five so far in Paris, with three silvers and two bronze.
Daley and Williams’ coach, Jane Figueiredo, told the BBC: ‘Excited, fearless, just over the moon for both of them. There’s been a lot going on behind the scenes for both of them, to come and achieve a silver medal is absolutely brilliant. China was just too good. We hung in there, but it was brilliant.
‘I’m their coach, so I think they should be better. The games or any of the events, you have to be consistently and emotionally detached. You have to be focussed, just execute the skill and everything is outside of that. They just executed today.
‘For Tom and I, it’s like old turkey. We’ve been on this rodeo. It’s Noah’s first medal, he lost his beautiful, wonderful coach a few years ago. David Jenkins set him up, I took him the rest of the way. Noah was exceptional today.
‘It’s an emotional thing, it’s not just Xs and Os, it’s three of us with a whole team around us with an amazing London aquatics venue.’
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