Harper impressive for fifth in Olympic Springboard final

Having successfully negotiated the qualification rounds across the previous two days, Yasmin Harper and Grace Reid lined up for the Women’s 3m Springboard final at Paris 2024 in a test against the world’s best.

Harper carried a bit of an underdog status after squeezing into the top-12 from the semi-finals, but the Sheffield diver took being first on the dive order in her stride and put 63.00 points on the board with a polished Forward 2½ Somersaults 1 Twist Pike (5152B) in a first round that saw many a nervous effort.

With a bronze medal already to her name after winning Team GB’s first medal of Paris 2024 alongside Scarlett Mew Jensen in the 3m Synchro, Harper stayed in touch of the conversation to add another with some consistent diving helping her build towards the best individual tally she’d recorded through the event rounds. Finishing off with a superb Forward 3½ Somersaults Pike (107B) took her score to 305.10 point – ranking Harper fifth at her first time of asking at an Olympic Games.

Meanwhile, back in an individual Olympic final for the first time since her eighth place finish at Rio 2016, Reid made a reasonably steady start only to unfortunately come undone with a dropped dive in the second round.

Though composing herself for further rounds, the highlight of the three-time Olympians performance came with the dive that had proved so reliable in closing out throughout each stage of the competition – scoring 66.00 points on her Forward 2½ Somersaults 1 Twist Pike (5152B) to place tenth overall among the best in the world.

Reacting to her finals performance, Harper commented:

“I really tried to give it my best shot this afternoon. I gave it my all and if you’d told me last year that I was going to come away with a bronze medal and fifth in an Olympic I’d honestly have no complaints so I’ve got to remember that.

“I think this has really shown me that I want more and I’m not done in the diving pool.”

On being first to go in the dive order she added:

“I think going first obviously if it’s going well for you it puts the pressure on the people after you so yeah I guess there was a bit of that going on today. I don’t mind going first, it’s normally fine with me!

“I feel proud of my efforts and all of the work I’ve put in prior to this Olympic Games. Fifth is a great result for me but it does make me want to go again for four years’ time and hopefully I can come back for more.”

For Reid, her third Olympic Games saw her place 10th in the world - and while her final performance was not quite the one she was targeting, she could reflective on a positive Paris experience and being part of a special team.

"How to sum it up? I'm not sure where I stand at the moment, I feel a bit all over the place emotion wise - pleased that I'm at my third Olympic Games, I'm a finalist again, I've done some really amazing stuff this week. It didn't come together today as I wanted it to, which is frustrating, but I've got to think about the bigger picture of where I've come from over the past three years," she said.

"It's nice when you hear other people say it [finishing 10th in the world], but it's hard, you move the goalposts don't you? As soon as you qualify, you're like, 'I don't just want to make the prelims, I want to make the semis, then I want to make the final, then I want to push for a medal'. You just keep moving the goalposts, because that's what we're born to do, we're athletes and we want to push the boundaries. So yes, I am really pleased by that, but the achievement wasn't what I was hoping for.

"It's been so positive being here in Paris. Overall, just to have that interaction, have a normal experience at an Olympics - having that comparison with Rio to Tokyo was really hard - and there are so many elements that, now I'm finished, I can really go and enjoy them. The team have been amazing, we've still got one more day of competitions tomorrow, which I'm looking forward to, and I get to be a supporter for the boys now."

Earlier in the day the Men’s 10m Platform preliminaries witnessed Noah Williams and Kyle Kothari both secure their place in the next stage of the competition.

Both British men produced two individual dives awarded more than 80 points, with the Dive London pair separately awarded identical high marks for their respective sublime Back 2½ Somersaults 2½ Twists Pike (5255B) efforts.

Williams’ progress as eighth seed out of the preliminaries was equally helped by his fourth round Back 3½ Somersaults Pike (207B) for 82.80 points, while Kothari was just one place back on the leaderboard in ninth - thanks in part to a fierce Forward 4½ Somersaults Tuck (109C) landing him 81.40 points in the penultimate fifth round of dives.

Williams and Kothari will return to the Olympic Aquatics Centre for the Men’s 10m Platform semi-finals at 9am (BST) Saturday morning, where a place in the top-12 will see them through to the final at 2pm (BST). You can find details of all the upcoming aquatics action from Paris 2024 through our What’s On? Page.

Where can I watch?

The BBC will be covering the majority of the Games across BBC One and Two, the BBC Red Button and BBC iPlayer. You can find their coverage schedule by clicking here.

Discovery+/Eurosport will also be broadcasting every minute of the Olympic Games but these channels require a subscription fee.