Yorkshire diving stars heading to the Tokyo Olympics

Defending title: Jack Laugher.Defending title: Jack Laugher.
Defending title: Jack Laugher.
Reigning Olympic champion Jack Laugher and two-time bronze medallist Tom Daley have been included in Great Britain’s 12-strong diving team for the forthcoming Tokyo Games.

Harrogate’s Laugher won gold in the synchronized 3m springboard with Chris Mears at Rio 2016 and will defend the crown alongside Daniel Goodfellow, as well seeking glory in the individual 3m springboard following silver in that event five years ago.

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Daley, who finished third in the 10m platform at London 2012 and then took bronze with Goodfellow in the 10m synchro in Brazil, has again been selected for those events, with another Yorkshireman, Leeds’ Matty Lee, his partner in the latter on this occasion.

Daley and Lee will head to the Japanese capital full of confidence after winning both the World Cup and European Championship titles last month.

Joining Daley on the high board in the individual contest will be Noah Williams, while Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix and Huddersfield’s Lois Toulson will compete in the women’s event. Toulson will be partnered by Eden Cheng in the synchro.

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In addition to Laugher, James Heatly is the other pick in the 3m individual springboard.

Grace Reid, Sheffield’s Kat Torrance and Scarlett Mew Jensen complete the TeamGB squad. Reid and Mew Jensen will compete in the women’s 3m springboard, with Torrance joining the former in the 3m synchro.

British Diving performance director Alexei Evangulov said: “This has been the longest Olympic cycle ever, however the hardest part of it was the last year - our team exceeded all my expectation in terms of coping with all the challenges we experienced during the pandemic.

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“Our divers not only managed to secure their physical and technical shape in this situation, but also significantly improved their diving quality.

“All of this, plus our coaches and staff’s professionalism allowed us to come up to the homestretch to Tokyo with a great confidence, high ambitions and belief.”

The rescheduled Games run from July 23 to August 8.

Great Britain diving team: Eden Cheng, Tom Daley, Daniel Goodfellow, James Heatly, Jack Laugher Matty Lee, Scarlett Mew Jensen, Grace Reid, Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix, Katherine Torrance, Lois Toulson, Noah Williams.

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