Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix and Lois Toulson mount fight back to bag GB bronze

The British pair scored 77.76 on their final dive and pipped Canada for the bronze when they could only post 68.16.

Great Britain’s Lois Toulson wipes a tear from Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix after they received their bronze medal (John Walton, PA) (PA Wire)

Team GB’s Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix and Lois Toulson earned a hard-fought bronze medal in the women’s synchronised 10m platform event.

The pair jumped into second at the end of round two, but entering the more difficult dives, they could only post 60.3 in the third round, causing them to tumble into fifth.

They responded well in the final rounds, scoring a 77.76 on their final dive and following a nervous wait their spot on the podium was all but confirmed after nearest rivals Canada could only score 68.16 on their last dive.

Chinese pair Chen Yuxi and Quan Hongchan successfully defended their Olympic gold, while North Korea pair Jo Jin Mi and Kim Mirae earned silver.

Toulson insisted the pair refused to give up going into the final rounds.

She said: “We knew our last two dives were the hardest degree of difficulty, so if we got those down we’d be back up at the top.

“We never gave up or thought it was over, we really kept pushing.”

Spendolini-Sirieix admitted the duo did not know how tight the competition was during the final round.

“First off we didn’t look at the scoreboard, so we didn’t actually know how close it was,” she said.

“But our back twist, as Lois has said, a lot of times is our strongest dive and we just wanted to be strong on our last dive, finish strong.

“Whatever happened I was proud to represent Great Britain alongside Lois.”