Jack Laugher full of praise for Anthony Harding after synchronised gold

The pair’s partnership is relatively new but they won by 61.56 points

England’s Anthony Harding and Jack Laugher sealed gold in the synchronised 3m springboard final (Tim Goode/PA) (PA Wire)

Jack Laugher was full of praise after he sealed his second gold medal of the Commonwealth Games, winning the men’s synchronised three-metre springboard event alongside partner Anthony Harding.

In what is a relatively new partnership between the pair, they topped the leaderboard in Friday’s event with 438.33, winning by a massive 61.56 points.

For Harding, this is his first medal on his Commonwealth debut and the 22-year-old was delighted to finally have the chance to show what he can do.

He said: “I’m over the moon with it, I mean I did a pretty okay performance, I could have done a little better, I know Jack’s maybe a little disappointed, but I have just worked so hard for this.

“I have waited plenty of years, I’ve watched him [Laugher] at three other Commonwealths, three Olympics, so it’s been a while for me to get onto this kind of stage and he’s a massive help.”

Laugher came into the competition with plenty of experience in the discipline having won it in Glasgow 2014 and the Gold Coast 2018 alongside partner Chris Mears.

He also won gold in Thursday’s one-metre individual springboard event and has a chance to add a third in Saturday’s three-metre individual springboard, but was encouraged by Friday’s performance.

“Two in two days, it’s been great,” Laugher said.

“I struggled to get to sleep last night a little bit, felt a little bit worse for wear this morning really, but I think I put together an okay performance.

“Anthony’s done a great job and it was a massive ask to come out here in his first Commonwealth Games in front of a big crowd and to perform that consistently and that solidly, so it’s a really, really good performance for a lot of reasons.

“Things need to be improved on, things need to get better, but overall really happy with the performance and two golds is obviously the best I can ask for.”