Toulson and Spendolini-Sirieix win landmark world championships silver
Lois Toulson and Andrea SpendoliniSirieix have made history by winning Great Britain’s first ever world championships diving medal in a women’s event.
The pair took silver in the 10m synchro in Fukuoka, Japan. 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, with the American pair of Delaney Schnell and Jessica Parratto with bronze. Toulson told British Swimming: “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 championships 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 the 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.
“It didn’t cross my mind when we were competing, I just knew that we had a goal to achieve. We have achieved so many goals – we got the Paris [Olympics] spot, we got more than 300 points, we improved on the prelims and then adding to history is a beautiful moment.”