Lois Toulson and Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix add silvers to Jack Laugher and Anthony Harding's World Championship medals

On Saturday, former Olympic champion Jack Laugher of Harrogate and his clubmate Anthony Harding won silver in the 3m springboard synchro.

And then on Sunday, Laugher’s girlfriend and City of Leeds team-mate Lois Toulson, joined 10m synchro team-mate Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix in making history by winning Great Britain’s first ever World Championship diving medal in a women’s event, a silver.

The medal marks another notable achievement for the duo after they won European gold in Rome last year.

Toulson and Spendolini-Sirieix’s third-round score of 70.20 put them in a healthy position for a medal and another 70-point plus score in round four put them on the brink of history. The pair then finished with their highest score of 74.88, giving them a final tally of 311.76.

Their score was second to China’s Chen Yuxi and Quan Hongchan, who took the gold.

Toulson, 23, from Huddersfield, said: “I think I can speak for both of us that we are over the moon. Coming into this competition, we both knew that we could do it, but that sometimes makes it worse.

“But we put in a good performance and we’re over the moon! I can’t really believe that, I had no idea (about becoming the first British female divers to win a World Championship medal).

“I’ve been after a world medal for a while now, so to finally come away with one, and next to Andrea with a good performance, it makes all the hard work feel worth it.”

Spendolini-Sirieix, the daughter of TV personality Fred Sirieix, added: “It’s incredible. I’m so proud of us, and to see women in sport excelling, proving we can do everything.”

Laugher and Harding have now won two World Championship silvers, a European title, Commonwealth gold and two Diving World Cup silvers in just over a year.

Laugher, who has an Olympic medal of every colour, said: “It's been a rough ride for me and Anthony, although we've been really successful this year with the World Cup silvers and then another one to follow up here today, and obviously the Olympic qualification was on the line.

"I've had a terrible knee which still is not 100 per cent at all, Anthony had two massive injuries as well in the pre-season, so this year has been, in comparison to last year, not smooth sailing at all.

"But we are here, we've done the job, we're really happy with the performance, there are still some things to improve on. Between Anthony and I, we just want to thank everyone who has been involved in getting us to where we are now - without the physios, doctors, medical staff, our coaches, friends and family and everyone involved in our team, we would not be here without them. It's been a very emotional day with some dropped dives here and there, but we're really happy overall."

The silver medal secures GB a place in the 3m springboard synchro for the Paris Olympics and Harding added: "I've been quite stressed about the situation, about qualifying. But the difference from last year for me was I've grown up a lot, I feel like I'm a lot more experienced now, I'm happy with the dives I do.

"I've had the injuries, I've come back and I'm maybe not as strong as I was last year, but to put in a performance like that with Jack is amazing."