No Laugher matter! British protege Jack struck by nerves in diving bomb

By Sportsmail Reporter

Published: 16:54 EST, 6 August 2012 | Updated: 16:54 EST, 6 August 2012

Rising star Jack Laugher suffered a shock exit in an error-strewn first round of the men's three-metre springboard on Monday.

While team-mate Chris Mears edged through Laugher, ranked seventh in the world, failed to make the 18-diver cut-off.

Laugher, at 17 the youngest competitor in the field, appeared to be wracked by nerves in his first Olympics which ended with a failed dive and scores of zero.

A clearly distraught Laugher was left punching at the water as he finished 27th with a score of 330 - just over 140 points below his international best.

Mears also had to battle and was 21st at the halfway stage before he snuck through in 18th with a score of 436.05 to qualify for Tuesday morning's semi-final.

Junior world champion Laugher was not alone in enduring a forgettable night, however, as the competition was marked by some startling errors from the world's best divers.

Germany's Stephan Feck was forced to withdraw shortly after he completely bombed his second dive, almost jumping at right angles before landing flat on his back.

Venezuela's Edickson Contreras Bracho was left in tears after his second penalty for aborting a dive while even China's Qin Kai was not immune, relinquishing the lead after he drew scores of 3.5 for his mis-timed penultimate effort.

Until then Laugher had not made a major mistake, despite being well below his best, but slipped off the board on his final effort and failed to complete the dive.

Only Feck and Contreras Bracho were behind the teenager in the standings.

Russia's Ilya Zakharov made the most of a crazy night to qualify first ahead of defending champion He Chong, who had been as low as ninth.

Laugher was too upset to speak to the written press afterwards and it was left to his coach Adrian Hinchliffe to reflect on a bad night.

'I'm afraid the occasion got to the young man today,' he said. 'It's hard for us because we all know how super talented he really is. He's had a bad knock there. We're devastated for him.

'It's upsetting, but we have to remember he's 17. He's had some great results coming into this.

'It's been a hard day for him today but any lesson is a good one for us. That's sport. He'll bounce back he's a real tough cookie.'

Hinchliffe admitted he had needed to put an arm around his young protege, who has been tipped as a future world champion by former United States diving legend Greg Louganis.

'He's angry. He wants to be around people who are close to him at the moment,' he said. 'He doesn't want to talk to too many people. He just needs to calm down. It's been an emotional experience.

'I've just reminded him of how brilliant he is. He doesn't understand that at the moment but he's young and he is brilliant. We're very lucky to have Jack Laugher in the Great Britain diving team.'

There were contrasting emotions for Mears who snuck through by 2.2 points and had added reason for cheer after posting an international best score.

'For me I had a really good event. I was consistent throughout all six rounds which is hard to do at this level,' he said. 'That score is an international best so I'm really happy with that.'

The Reading diver revealed he had not been affected by the mayhem of mistakes around him because he did not watch his competitors in order to stay focused.

'I just do my competition. I didn't watch so I don't know. At the end of the day it's an Olympic Games. Those five rings mean a lot to people and that can make or break people.'