Final performance full of promise for Leeds pair

The duo who won European Games gold in Baku last month, scraped into the final in the 12th and final qualifying spot on 379.86 points after an error on their fifth dive.

They improved by almost 20 points in the final to climb three places in an event won by China’s Aisen Chen and Yue Lin with 495.72.

Mexico’s Ivan Garcia Navarro and German Sanchez took silver with 448.89 and Russians Roman Izmailov and Victor Minibaev were third on 441.33, while Denny and Lee scored 396.84.

Lee, who will join Tom Daley in competing in the individual 10m platform event on Saturday, said: “The year has gone better than I ever would have thought to be honest.

“Baku was great and I’ve still got a competition to go here but it’s definitely a performance to be happy about. To be honest, next year is all about getting to the Olympics and hopefully me and James will go for the synchro.”

Denny added: “Matty and I have only been diving together since the start of this year so we’ve come really far to finish ninth in the world - I couldn’t have expected that at the beginning of the year.”

On Saturday, Alicia Blagg and Rebecca Gallantree finished 10th in the 3m Synchro final.

The City of Leeds pair, who won Commonwealth gold at Glasgow 2014, scored 286.86 as China’s Shi Tingmao and Wu Minxia defended their title on 351.30. Canada (319.47) took silver and Australia (304.20) bronze.

While they finished fourth in the morning prelim, the duo were playing catch up from an early stage in the final, ranking seventh after the two opening required dives then slipping down to 11th.

They raised their level in the last two rounds, but could only recover one place,finishing less than 18 points off the top three.

Gallantree added: “The top three qualified for the Olympics today but the rest of the places will be decided at next year’s World Cup so we’re going to have to get back in to hard training when we get home to get ready for that.”