Britain's divers secured a quartet of silver medals on the opening day of action at the new-look World Aquatics Diving World Cup.
With all four of the synchro events taking place on day one in Xi'an, China, the GB team reaffirmed their world-class credentials from springboard and platform with some stellar early-season performances.
Lois Toulson and Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix began the medal rush in the Women's 10m Synchro, the European champions - making just their second international appearance as a synchro pair - produced three brilliant optionals, with a Forward 3 1/2 Somersaults Pike (107B) worth 72 points in round three moving them into second place, a position they never looked likely to surrender.
That result and podium spot was confirmed with their closing effort, a Back 2 1/2 Somersaults 1 1/2 Twists Pike (5253B) that scored 75.84 from the judges and ensured they ended on 310.44 points, nearly 30 points clear of German pair Christina and Elena Wassen in third.
Following Lois and Andrea into action were fellow platform pair Matty Lee and Noah Williams, who would go on to make it two silvers in the space of an hour or so as they got their 2023 campaign off to a promising start.
Injury kept Matty out of February's British National Diving Cup, but the synchro duo showed few signs of that knocking them out of their stride on their return to competition, with two solid required dives followed by an eye-catching Back 2 1/2 Somersaults 2 1/2 Twists Pike (5255B) that scored 85.32 points and was the highest-ranking dive of the round.
While they could not quite eclipse that tally with their 3.7-degree-difficulty Forward 4 1/2 Somersaults Tuck (109C) last up, a closing total of 418.98 was more than enough for silver, behind only Hao Yang and Junjie Lian of China.
Reflecting on the performance on Instagram afterwards, Matty said: "That's a great way to start my competitive season. Very happy with our performance and there's so much room for improvement. And of course a big thank you to my coach Jane Figueiredo and the rest of my support team for getting me to the start line."
Focus then moved to the springboards, as first Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew-Jensen, and then Jack Laugher and Anthony Harding, picked up silvers of their own.
Barring a slight drop in round three, Yasmin and Scarlett were consistent throughout their five-strong list, ranking second in four of their dives, including a Forward 3 1/2 Somersaults Pike (107B) that earned them a high score of 66.03. They closed on 281.43 to take the second step on the podium,
Rounding out Friday in China were the Adam Smallwood-coached pair of Laugher and Harding, who had secured silver in their first major international competition together at the World Championships before going on to claim European and Commonwealth titles.
Here, they built from round to round, peaking with their fifth dive, a Forward 4 1/2 Somersaults Tuck (109C) that earned 82.08 points - although it was their fourth-round Inward 3 1/2 Somersaults Tuck (407C) that was the best synchro of their optionals, 7.5s and 8s from the judges helping them to 78.54 points.
Jack and Anthony's final score of 414.75 ensured it was a clean sweep of silver on the day for British Diving, ahead of the individual events on Saturday and Sunday, as well as the closing Mixed 3m and 10m Team event.
For all the results and to follow coverage of the Diving World Cup, head over to the World Aquatics website. A full event schedule is available as part of our event preview.
