Great Britain’s Tony Ally and Mark Shipman have both qualified for the men’s three-metre springboard semi-final tomorrow by the narrowest of margins.
From the 32 preliminary competitors this morning only the top 18 went through to the next round, and Ally and Shipman qualified in 16th and 18th position respectively.
They will both suffer the disadvantage of having to dive early in the semi-final, with the order being reversed to the preliminary placings.
19-year-old Alexandre Despatie from Canada finished the preliminaries in the first place despite sitting in seventh spot after his opening dive. However, he managed to claim the highest marks in the next three rounds to be sitting clear after six dives in total with a score of 517.59 points.
Bo Peng from China is in second position with 495.45 points, folowed by Alexander Dobroskok of Russia, the world springboard champion, with 489.75.
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World platform champion Despatie is bidding for the diving double here - the platform and springboard - a feat last achieved by US diver Greg Louganis, who won back-to-back titles in both events in 1984 and 1988.
Canada’s only previous Olympic diving gold was won by Sylvie Bernier in the women’s springboard event in 1984.
Dmitry Sautin, the 1996 Olympic ten-metre platform champion, showed that he is still very much in the running, with the 30-year-old Russian in sixth position.
The final will be held on WEdnesday.