Williams takes bronze for second medal of Games

Britain’s Noah Williams pulled off a stunning final-round dive to take bronze in the men’s 10m platform and win his second medal of the Paris Olympics.

Errors by his rivals had opened up the podium positions going into the final round and Williams – who won 10m synchro silver with Tom Daley earlier in the Games – delivered a forward four and a half somersaults dive that scored 94.35 to give him a total of 497.35.

Cao Yuan defended his title in convincing fashion (547.50) to give China a clean sweep of the diving gold medals, with Japanese 17-year-old Rikuto Tamai getting the silver (507.65).

“It’s literally a dream – I said that last time with synchro but individually winning a medal, doing it yourself, is a whole other level and I don’t think it’s sunk in because I’m nowhere near as emotional as last time,” Williams told BBC Sport.

Britain’s Kyle Kothari finished 11th on his Games debut, above world champion Yang Hao who was out of sorts and came last in the 12-man final.

Williams had only just squeezed into the final after a below-par showing in the semi-finals, so was the first to dive in each round.

It meant he had a nervous wait after his brilliant final effort to see if it would be enough for a medal.

But when challengers including Mexican Randal Willars Valdez put in messy dives, Williams soon discovered he would be adding to what was Great Britain’s biggest diving medal haul at a Games.

After four synchro medals, this is Britain’s only individual diving medal.

This is only the fourth time Great Britain have won a medal in this event. All of them have been bronze and two of them were for Daley – in 2012 and 2020. You have to go back to Brian Phelps in 1960 for the other.

Daley was in the stands watching his synchro partner Williams in the final diving event of the Games.

Williams has been happy in the past to stay in the shadow of Daley but with these medals he has announced himself firmly on the big stage.

He joins Daley and Jack Laugher as the only British divers to win two medals in one Olympics – but is humble in that he does not see himself in the same league.

“I just got lucky,” he said. “They’re a whole other level. Those two are the greatest of GB diving. Don’t get me wrong, I’m so happy with how I’ve done and it’s a huge achievement but they are another class.”

It had looked like he was out of the running for his first global individual medal when he over-rotated on his fourth dive but consistency across his other dives, coupled with errors from others, kept him in touching distance before the stunning final effort.

He said it had been an advantage to dive first, explaining: “When you’re first, I’m not focused on anyone else, I just literally did what I had to do to get the medal.”

In terms of numbers of medals won, Paris has provided Great Britain with its biggest number ever, surpassing its previous best of three.

Before Williams’ individual medal, the other four had come in the synchronised events, with Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen starting the medal rush on day one of the Games in the synchronised 3m springboard.

Daley and Williams followed that with silver in the men’s 10m synchro platform before Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix and Lois Toulson took Great Britain’s first ever medal in the women’s event with a bronze.

Laugher and Anthony Harding then added a bronze in the men’s synchronised 3m springboard as the nation won a medal in all four synchro events for the first time.

Unlike at Tokyo 2020 and Rio 2016 there was to be no British diving gold as China stood on top of the podium in all eight events.

But they made the finals in all the individual events to underline that British diving is in a strong place.