Tony Harding wins bronze at first Olympics

Ashton diver Tony Harding has won a bronze medal in the Men’s 3m Synchronised Springboard at the Paris Olympics.

24-year-old Harding, alongside dive partner Jack Laugher, sealed a top three finish with an outstanding final dive to maintain Team GB’s perfect record of four medals from as many events. 

The duo led the field at the halfway point thanks in part to a perfectly executed forward two-and-a-half somersault with two twists that scored them 82.62 points. 

However, exceptional efforts from reigning world champions Long Daoyi and Wang Zongyuan edged the Chinese pair ahead, with Mexico’s Juan Celaya and Osmar Olvera – who was the youngest diver at the 2021 Tokyo Games – accelerating to take silver. 

Although Harding has won bronze in his debut Olympics, it’s 29-year-old Laugher’s fourth medal on the biggest stage after claiming gold and silver at Rio 2016, and a bronze in Tokyo.  

He is just one behind Tom Daley’s medal count, but this is already a record haul for Team GB in diving, which includes a bronze for Laugher’s girlfriend, Lois Toulson. 

While Laugher is in the autumn of his career, Harding is already thinking about Los Angeles in four years' time. 

“I’m going to carry on and I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next four years. I’d hope to do another Olympics. I’m just so happy this is around my neck and I can retire early if I want." 

Elsewhere at the Olympics, Droylsden's Georgia Taylor-Brown finished 6th in the Women's Triathlon on Wednesday, but will hope to add to her two medals from Tokyo when she is expected to compete in Monday's mixed relay.