Britain’s diving hopes Pete Waterfield and Leon Taylor dipped out of the medal pool in the 10 metres platform diving final tonight.
Taylor and Waterfield won silver together in the synchronised 10 metres event last week but could not quite reproduce that form in the individual dive to finish fifth and sixth respectively.
China’s Hu Jia was the surprise winner, claiming gold ahead of Australia’s Robert Helm and compatriot Tian Liang, the defending Olympic champion, with a total of 748.08 points.
Hu snatched gold on his final dive, which was awarded five 10s for a remarkable score of 100.98points, the highest valued dive of the evening by some distance.
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Waterfield had left himself with too much to do after starting the final in 11th place 28.95 points behind the leader - at that stage Canadian world champion Alexandre Despatre - though he put in a brave effort.
Consecutive dives worth 80.19 and then 93.84 in rounds four and five propelled the 23-year-old above Taylor and into fifth place.
The leaders had realistically been out of reach for most of the evening but the two Britons were battling for personal pride and there was very little in it - just 0.42 points - as they headed into the final round.
Both had chosen one of the hardest dives possible, the backwards two-and-a-half somersault with two-and-a-half twists.
Taylor was awarded 78.66 but Waterfield executed his for a 88.36 to claim fifth place from his team-mate and training partner.
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Taylor finished fourth in this event in Sydney four years ago, an agonising result for the affable City of Sheffield diver, but he could not improve on that tonight after turning in an inconsistent performance.
The 26-year-old’s best effort of the evening was his fifth dive, a backwards three-and-a-half somersault with tuck, for 90.09 points.
But it simply made up for his disappointing third effort of 67.70 and he had to settle for sixth place.